THE SEAFARERS

OTHER WORKS BY A. CORBETT-SMITH

THE FAR EAST
Japan and the Pacific
The Evolution of Modern China
The New Woman of China
THE PUBLIC HEALTH
The Problem of the Nations (Sexual Disease
and the Education of the Individual)
MILITARY
Scouting for Gunners
Active Service Chats

THE WORLD WAR

The German Menace (Lectures and Essays
since 1908)
The Clash of Ideals
The Retreat from Mons
The Marne — and After
POETRY
Greeting and Farewell, and other Poems
A Prologue for St. George's Day
Elizabeth
THE DRAMA
The Chinese Drama, Yesterday and To-day
Critical Essays
Three One-Act Plays
MUSIC (Literature)
The Renaissance of English Folk Song
The Chinese and their Music
The Music of Grieg
Music in the Services, and other Essays
MUSIC (Compositions)
Elizabeth (an Opera)
On the Irish Shore (Concert Overture)
Two Orchestral Suites on Irish Folk-Melodies
Festal March in A, for Military Band
Elizabethan Lyrics (Voice
" and Orchestra)
"
Soldier Songs from A
Shropshire Lad (do.)
Under the Window (with Kate Greenaway)
The Irish Guards (with Rudyard Kipling)
The Battle of Jutland (a Naval Ballad) "
Songs (published in a definitive edition,
'
The
Songs of 'Aston Tyrrold ")
Photo: Alice Hughes.

3o^t
 THE
SEAFARERS
BY

A. GORBETT-SMITH
(Major, R.F.A.)

With Portraits and Plans

Let us be backed by God, and with the seas

Which He has given for force impregnable,
And with their helps only defend ourselves.
In them and in ourselves our safety lies.

CASSELL AND COMPANY, LTD

London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne
1919
 Uo
My Comrades
of
The Senior Service
and
To All who Kept the Seas
1914—1918
In Gratitude.
 CONTENTS
1. THE MARINERS OF ENGLAND 1

II. THE TRADITION OF THE ROYAL NAVY 41

III. THE SEA AFFAIR . 69

Co-operation 76
Combat
the nelson tradition 94
mainly about jutland bank 115
LIGHT CRAFT AND SINGLE ship
ACTIONS 135

....
.

Convoy 159

Communications . . 173

the blockade of germany 180

the bringers of bread . 190
the avengers 210
the mine -sweepers 230

Author's Note . 249

Appendix 268

Index 273
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PORTRAITS

Admiral Viscount Jellicoe . .

Frontispiece

Admiral Sir David Beatty ... FACING PAGE

50

Rear-Admiral Sir Reginald Yorke Tyrwhitt 98

Vice -Admiral Sir Roger Keyes . .166

PLANS

Action in Kattegat, November 2, 1917 . 102

Diagram of North Sea Minefield . .216

 THE SEAFARERS

THE MARINERS OF ENGLAND

. a chant for the sailors of all nations
. . .

Of sea-captains young or old, and the males, and of all intrepid

sailors,
Of the few, very choice, taciturn, whom fate can never surprise nor
death dismay,
Pick'd sparingly without noise by thee, old ocean, chosen by thee,
Thou sea that pickesl and cullest the race in time, and unitest nations.
Suckled by thee, old husky nurse, embodying thee.

Indomitable, untamed as thee. Walt Whitman.

His Majesty's battle-cruiser Tiger lay at her moor-

ings off Tynemouth. Some trifling, necessary repairs
were going forward, and she had taken on board
" "
to do the work a number of civilian hands ;

'

dockyard maties," as they call them in the Service.

The job was but half finished when a wireless message
came through that German ships were out in the
North Sea. The Tiger promptly raised steam for
16-20 knots, slipped her cables, and " proceeded as
"
requisite to join her consorts.
It was a very hurried departure ;
so hurried,
"
in fact, that she had no time to put her dockyard
'
maties on shore. Out into the North Sea the
Tiger steamed, and aboard of her went, willy-nilly,
"
the dockyard maties."
2 THE SEAFARERS
Now, when they were well out to sea and had
begun to grasp the fact that there was something
more serious in prospect than a little pleasure trip
" "
to Scarborough, these maties began to feel some-
what nervous. In fact one of them created such a
disturbance that he was incontinently clapped into
a strait-waistcoat and strapped up to a bulk-
head.
One of the bluejackets making his way aft could
not resist stopping to pass the time of day with the
struggling captive.
"You're one ofthem blighters," said he, 'wot
'
sits home in an armchair and asks Wot's the
at
blinking Navy a'-doin' of?' Well, now you're
darned well going to see wot the Navy's a-doin'
of."
And he did.

At least that is what the men of the Royal

Navy thought about it.

The British Navy has accomplished once again

its traditional task. It is the Sea Power of Britain
Which, under God's Almighty Hand, has again de-
cided the issue of this, the latest War of Liberation.
Let there be no misunderstanding now, nor
hereafter, on that point. It was, under the good

providence of God, the Mariners of England who

stood between Germany and the domination of the
world. It was the Mariners of England who brought
to their knees, one by one, the subject-allies of
Germany, and, at the last, brought tottering to its
fall the arch-enemy Empire itself.
 MARINERS OF ENGLAND 3
And as the achievement of that task has evoked
the mightiest effort in a noble cause that a Nation
has ever made since first the world was peopled,
so is the story of it the proudest, the most exultant

which has ever inspired tongue or pen to the telling

of it. Well may one cry :

O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend

The brightest heaven of invention,
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act, :-

And monarchs to behold the swelling scene.

The Mariners of England, and the Sea Power

which they have wielded Yet the story can never be
!

told. Invoke to your aid how you may the Arts

of Music, of Poetry and of Painting, and still must
you remain dumb before the splendour and majesty
of the vision. For the vision is of the eternal Sea
itself, and of that which the Sea has created, the
Soul of an Island Race. It is that mighty Spiritual
Force, of which the British Navy is but the visible
embodiment, which has decided the issue.
What has the Navy done ? And the reply is
''Everything." Nothing that has been accomplished
by sea or by land would have been possible of
accomplishment had not the British Navy made
it so.

Andthe British Navy, what is it ? How

may
we describe it? How should we think of it?
We can neither understand what it is nor what
it has done until we have learned a little of that
which has gone to the making of it. And to do
—
that we must understand ourselves. For the British
Navy is not a thing apart not some curious exotic
;

growth; not some alien race grafted on to our

4 THE SEAFARERS
common stock. It is the offspring of our parentage,
it of one family with us.
is And if any man would
seek a privilege which he holds to be prouder than
the calling of our Seafarers blood-brothers then he
is no man of ours.
To speak, then, of the British Navy* we must
have in our hearts to mean a far greater power than
those grim warships of the Northern mists and all
that never-ending list of vessels, down to the ice-
breakers of the White Sea and the gunboats of the
African rivers and lakes, which fly the White Ensign.
When you have visualised those ships of the Royal
Navy in all their astonishing variety and the men
who man them, you will have glimpsed but a small
fraction of the mighty Sea Service of ours which is the
real British Navy.

The Merchant Seamen

For the foundation of the Royal Navy, the very
heart-centre of it to-day as it has ever been, is the
Merchant Service. The big ships and the little ships,
from the lordly Atlantic liner to the old lumbering
G-knot tramp, which go a-threshing to and fro across
the Seven Seas these, with the skippers and the
;

mates and the men of them, aye, and their wives

and their kiddies these of the Mercantile Marine
;

are one family with us and are of the British Navy.

Three hundred years ago there sailed out of
Plymouth Sound a little merchant ship called the
*
The terms "British" Navy and "Royal" Navy are not synony-
mous. It will he noted that throughout the volume a definite dis-

tinction is made between the two.

 THE MERCHANT SEAMEN 5

Elizabeth. A couple of hundred ton she was, and

she carried ten little guns aboard her. But her
decks were so laden high with merchandise and
trading gear that of the ten guns she could, if need
were, only bring into action five of them. John
Pascoe was the name of her skipper, and he was a
man of the Thirty-six men all told
West Country.
made the crew, and these, too, were of Devon and
Cornwall.
For three days the Elizabeth slipped along, her
sails full setto a following nor' -easterly breeze, out
through the Narrow Seas down past Ushant bound for
the coasts of Barbary. And on the morning of the
fourth day she sighted three Algerine pirate craft
newly sped from harrying the coasts of the Bristol
Channel.
The three — and they carried guns
—pirates
lifty
between them closed the little Elizabeth and sum-
moned her to surrender. But Pascoe called to his
men of the West Country, and they cast loose the
lashings of their live little guns, and they manned
the tops of their little merchant ship, and so the
fight began.
All through the long hours of that midsummer
—
day did they strive for their ship, for their gear,
for the honour of the Hag, English and Scots crosses

interwoven, which lluttered overhead. Seven times

did the pirates swarm inboard of her ; seven times
did the men of Devon hurl them back into the sea.
ki
This way and that swayed that bloody and cruel
'

bickering until, at the last, with the setting of

the sun, when the men of Devon looked once more
to greet their enemies, behold, one of the pirate
6 THE SEAFARERS
craft had sunk and the other two had turned tail
and (led.
Now the little Elizabeth was a merchant ship.
Four years ago there sailed out of Holland, bound
for Thames-mouth, a merchant tramp called the
Avocct. And the name of her skipper was Brennell.
She, too, carried a crew of thirty odd men, but the
only armament aboard was a matter of three rifles
and a handful of rockets such as they put up at the
Crystal Palace for Brock's benefit night.
Three hours or so out of Rotterdam there swooped
down to attack her three pirate craft in the shape
of three Hun one a big fighting-machine,
aeroplanes ;

the other two smaller Each carried a machine-

scouts.

gun and a goodly store of bombs.

For a space of thirty minutes did the Huns loose
their bombs over and around the little Avocct ; but
such was Brennell's skill in seamanship, so cunningly
did he manoeuvre his ship inward and outward upon
a zigzag course, that barely a single bomb found
its target. And in those thirty minutes thirty-five
bombs were hurled downward.
So, too, did the deck hands of the Avocct strive
to repel the murderous attack. With their three
puny rifles they blazed away at the aircraft as one
shoots at the screaming gull borne down the gale.
And the rifles grew red-hot to the hand so that no
man might hold them. And the handful of rockets
were loosed off the while the flying-men laughed
in derision under the canopy of green and crimson
stars. But one laughed too long, for a rocket sent
him banking heavily over so that he might hardly
win to his balance again.
 THE MERCHANT SEAMEN 7

And now the Huns, having loosed all their bombs,

swung down to a closer attack. At eight hundred
feet off the port beam * the fighting-machine opened
fire with the machine-gun. And through the hail
of lead that swept the Avocet from fo'c'sle to poopf
the helmsman held to his wheel and the master still
conned his ship. And with naked fists the deck
hands fought on.
Now all seemed at an end, for men dropped here
and there about the deck or under the poor cover
which wooden hatches might give. But away to
the horizon there appeared a smudge of smoke, and
with it the Huns turned over and away back to
by Zeebrugge or ever the avenging destroyers
their lair
could close to range.
But Brennell and his men had fought the fight
—
through, and the Avocet was of the Merchant
Service.
—
Four years ago a little merchant ship !

—
Three hundred years ago a little merchant ship !

Three hundred years ago But even then was !

the Mercantile Marine of England old in years and

in wisdom. Even then was it the envy and admira-
tion of the world, just as it is to-day.
We
fought Philip of Spain and the Spanish
Armada in 1588 with 197 ships. Men-of-war of the
Royal Navy ? Not so. No fewer than 103 of them
were of the Merchant Service.
Drake sailed into Cadiz Harbour to singe the
*
J'url beam, the Left-hand side of the ship, looking forrard.
t Forecastle, Ihe forward part of llic ship. Poop, the slcrn of
I lie ship.
S THE SEAFARERS
King of Spain's beard with 40 odd ships. Men-of-
war ? Just G ships of the 40 belonged to the Royal
Navy. The rest ? They were merchant ships.
Would you learn how a " well-informed neutral
"
observer (even in those days they existed) spoke
of the English mariners, merchant seamen for the
most part, in the campaign of the Armada ? Read,
then, the remarks of the Venetian Ambassador, a
seafarer like the remainder of his countrymen.
"
These people fight to the death," he wrote,
"and it is their habit before they sail to swear to
one another that they will fire the ship rather than
yield themselves prisoners, so resolute is this race
in battle."
I seem to hear an echo of that tribute in the
rousing cheers and blasts of syrens which greeted
the W
andlc and her gallant crew as she steamed
into the Pool of London with a list on her after
sinking, unarmed collier though she was, a German
submarine.
Drake, Frobisher, Ralegh, Hawkins, Grenville,
Willoughby, aye, and scores of others
them, like

they went a- voyaging through the uncharted Seas,

those gallant gentlemen, adventurers all, not on
your men-o'-war but in little cockle-shells of mer-
chantmen. (How often, I wonder, do our American
cousins recall the fact that the colonisation of Virginia
by Walter Ralegh was the foundation of the United
States !)

Who can study unmoved the splendour of the

pageant of sea-service wrought in those days ? To
the farthest corners of the world the Merchant Sea-
men of England bore their Country's Flag. Twice
 THE MERCHANT SEAMEN 9
was the globe circumnavigated the foundation of
:

the British Empire in India was laid round the :

north of Norway and through the White Sea was a

trade route created with Russia the fishing and
:

seal trade of the Newfoundland Banks a regular :

commerce with the West Indies and the Spanish

Main the Orinoco River explored
: the Cape of :

—
Good Hope rounded and then the half is not told.
Those were indeed true words which Pietro Mocenigo,
another Ambassador of Venice, spoke :
—
'
This has for its territory the ocean,
Kingdom
whereupon trades
it with the universe, or establishes,
its dominions with the movable forts of its ships,

which, uniting force with speed, diffuse to the bound-

aries of the world the glorious trafhckings of their
own valour."
And with the words I see dream-like the picture
of a great merchant explorer, Henry Hudson, as he
sailed from Greenwich on May Day, 1607, to find
a north-west passage through the ice to China.
Sailing in a little ship of 80 tons with a crew of but
ten men and a boy, his own son, to man her. The
stark wonder of the venture And yet he was back
!

again the next year fitting out a second expedition,

the Discovery, of 55 tons. Doomed though they
were, he and his little son, to meet a cruel death
in the frozen North, yet his name lives on through
the years by the Inland Sea and the Strait which
he discovered.

Fighting men ever were the merchant seamen

of England. They had need to be, for in the old

days, the only protection to their ships and gear

io THE SEAFARERS
lay in their own cool heads, stout hearts and strong
arms. The records of Edward III., which tell of
sixhundred years ago, show how the merchantmen
would put to sea without any armed convoy to
shepherd them. "Let them fend for themselves,"
said the paternal Government of those days.
So also was it ordained in 1914, but this time
with disastrous results until the Powers that Be
in Whitehall made another ruling. Not because
the spirit and hardihood of the seamen was any
less than it was (is there any need to remark it ?)
but because of the conditions of U-boat piracy
with which they had to grapple, and because now
the food supply from over-seas was vital to our
people as it never had been before. In the Napo-
leonic wars, with only ten million souls to feed, the
country was self-supporting.
The old days of the " wind-jammer " may have
passed away, but there is need of seamanship with
steam as with sail. If any doubt it let him turn
to the story of the Ortega and of Douglas Kinneir,
her skipper.
Running down the South American coast to
make the far southern passage the Ortega s look-out
sighted astern a German cruiser fast overhauling
"
them. As ordained, the Ortega had to fend for
herself," for she carried no guns aboard, and, in
any case, the enemy warship could have settled
the by lying outside the merchantman's
business
range and pounding her to death.
Kinneir on the bridge rang down for full steam
ahead.
1

Every ounce you can get out of her and a lot

 THE MERCHANT SEAMEN n
"
over," said he, if you have to rip up the decks
for firing."
And the engineers and the stokers heard the call
and buckled to it.
"
Kinneir eagerly scanned his chart. Keep 'em
off for a couple of hours and we'll beat 'em," he
muttered.
And at the turn of the two hours just as the
cruiser opened fire Kinneir swung his ship over
and drove straight for a gloomy channel and a tide
racing strong beneath heavy frowning cliffs.

The Second Officer

by gripped the bridge-
his side
rail amazement. For the channel had never
in
been charted, and it lay unknown, unsailed by man.
Once, twice had the surveyors of the sea attempted
the passage to map its dangers, but so threatening
was it with cross-currents and hidden reefs that
it was not worth the toil.

Straight into the unknown drove the Ortega, and

Kinneir ringing down again for slower speed conned
her in. In beneath the beetling cliffs which seemed
to roll sullenly backward to the touch of the hardy
adventurers, stemming the edge of a foaming current,
twisting to the cruel teeth of some jagged rock half
hidden, sounding her way foot by foot, so did Kinneir
guide his ship. And the German captain holding
his cruiser at the entrance danced upon his deck and
shook his list in baffled fury. For he had met with a
man of the sea, never before,
and he learned then, if*

that no nation of land-folk can breed such men.

Steadily onward steamed the Ortega in and out,
this way and that, until at last the dazzling sunlight
of open sea caught and illumined with llaming gold
12 THE SEAFARERS
the ensign fluttering ever overhead, and the
little

Ortega had won through. And Avhen they came to

look at her bows not a foot of her paint-work had
been scraped away.

Slowly through the years was the maritime power

of Britain welded together by the unconscious striv-

ing of her mariners. Those who will may study the

records, and no more absorbing story can be told.
For many a long day in our history were the merchant
seamen and their ships the true Royal Navy of the
realm, summoned fight by Royal Command.
to
They came, pressed men and volunteers, to give of
their best. For prize money and gain ?— mostly
perhaps ; the honour of the flag ? possibly
for — ;

for the love of adventure, ever the British craving ?

— so I would wish to believe.
And they lived and worked and fought under
conditions of incredible hardship ; conditions of
sickness, of horrible food, of cramped dwelling space,
in Arctic and Tropic seas, seven years, maybe, to a
commission during which there was never a sight of
their own native land.
now and can see only the glamour
\\c look back
of those days. Our hearts throb to the magic of
Nelson's name and to all that his immortality means.
We watch breathless with awe as Hawke leads his
fleet into Quiberon Bay through a howling gale on
a lee shore. We
sail in spirit with Anson on his

amazing venture as one by one his consorts fail

him, and yet his undaunted soul wins through.*
*
The story of Commodore George Anson's voyage in the
Centurion (1740-1744) is perhaps the most remarkable in our
Naval annals. The narrative created a furore throughout Europe,
 THE MERCHANT SEAMEN 13

Rodney West Indies Hood in the Medi-

in the ;

terranean ;
them and of a hundred
the names of
other sea-captains tell how the Sea Power of Britain
was built up. But what of the mariners of England
upon whose bodies the admirals builded ? Who
sings of them, save in songs and ballads designed
to weave a rosy spell over their work and hide the
"
squalor of their daily lives. Yeo ho ! for the
life of a sailor," they sing.
Yetit is but common justice that we should

pause sometimes to remember. To remember, for

instance, that when the seamen mutinied at the
Nore (most of us vaguely recall the incident), they
sought only in their demands just a few trifles to
make their lives more tolerable a little better :

food, fresh vegetables when in port, an occasional

day ashore, the non-stoppage of their pay when
lying wounded (imagine having to mutiny to redress
"
such a grievance as that !). The Lower deck,"
'
John Masefield has remarked, was the home of
every vice, every baseness, every misery. The life
lived there was something like the life of a negro
slave who happened to be housed in a gaol."
Yes, it is well that we should remember these
things. For only in remembering them can we
learn very dimly to appreciate the inborn qualities
of the breed and race which have made England
and the Empire what they are to-day.

Again, it was only very gradually that the Royal

"
especially in Germany, where everyone was at work on it with
"
grammars and dictionaries." It is obtainable in Everyman's
Library."
i4 THE SEAFARERS
Navy was created into the fighting Senior Service
that we have known in the Great War. When Charles
the First was King there were some 1,000 merchant
ships in the country's service which were held avail-
able for war duties when called upon. Of these, it
is interesting now to note, 400 were
engaged
in the coal trade. On the Thames from
alone,
Gravcsend to London, there were no fewer than
twenty thousand mariners (so it was estimated), who
were liable to be called up.
In 1914 the personnel of the Royal Navy numbered
145,000 men. In 1918 it numbered 440,000, and
most of those additional men had gone to it from
the Mercantile Marine.
It should be a fascinating thing to watch this

building of the Royal Navy and Mercantile Marine.

As fascinating as the building of a house which an
architect has modelled to be our home. Here I
may only set in place a few guide-posts to mark
the planning of the structure, and in the hope that
those who see them may turn with quickened interest
to many another volume of our Sea Story.
But if any man still doubts the value of the
Mercantile Marine to the Empire in the Great War
and how the merchant seamen have striven and
died as members of one great family with us, let
him think over those figures which I have just
quoted, and then consider these :*
During the four years or so of the War, 2,475
merchant ships of ours have been sunk under their
crews by the enemy these, with 670 fishing vessels,
:

*
The figures quoted, to October 31, 1918, are given on the
authority of the First Lord of the Admiralty.
 THE FISHER FOLK 15
have meant a total of 3,145 crews turned adrift.
In short 15,000 merchant seamen of ours have
perished, giving their lives that England might live.
How is the Nation going to show its gratitude ?
How repay a little of the debt ?

The Fisher Folk

So there is the Royal Navy which flies the White

Ensign ;and there is the Mercantile Marine which
flies the Blue and the Red Ensigns. But with these
you are only but beginning to learn the meaning
of the Sea Service which goes to the building of the
British Navy.
In August, '14,and as, with the passing days,
the incredible rumour of Hun murders on the High
Seas grew to a dreadful certainty, there rallied to the
"
call another band of brothers."
From the mist-shrouded headlands and treacherous
tides of the far Northern isles, from the grim, for-

bidding towns and tiny grey villages that line the

Scottish coast from Wick to Berwick and from
Kirkcudbright to Dunnet Head there came the
dour Scots fisherfolk, men, wives, lasses and bairns.
" "
Aye," cried they, 'tis the call o' the Lord,

and we maun follow it. Yon murdering devils ha'

smirched the seas. Tis we maun mak' them clean
again."
And they turned awhile from their nets (though
not wholly, for the Scots are canny folk), and they
took aboard strange weapons (which in time they
came almost to worship), and set about a new manner
i6 THE SEAFARERS
of fishing for a new, strange kind of fish. A fish
that carries death within its jaws.
From Bamborough Castle and Tynemouth, from
the smoke-laden Hartlepools and the nestling red-
roofed villages of the Yorkshire Ridings down to
Ilumber mouth and the Wash the fisherfolk rallied
to the Call. Grimsby and Yarmouth heard it, the
men and Kent, round the coast-line to
of Essex
the Lizard where the Cornishmen turned again to
their just as they manned them in the
luggers,
smuggling days of old.
It was the S.O.S. from their brethren of the sea,
and the Call was picked up by the Seafarers.
Long years when the Eighth Henry ruled
ago,
this land of ours, we were fighting a never-ending
war with Frenchmen and pirates. And whenever
there was the need, and English ships in the Narrow
Seas were faring badly, out from the south-coast
ports there sped the fisherfolk leaving their wives
and kiddies to " carry on."
We've come aboard," they said, " to serve
'

the guns."
And they manned the guns where the gun crews
had fallen by dead or dying. And their womenfolk
would sail their little fishing-smacks sixteen or
twenty miles out to sea, and run home again laughing
before the wind, chased by French privateers.
Four hundred years ago ! And what was the
story that they told in 1918 ?

It was the early morning of June 20. Five

hundred miles away to the north-west of the Shet-
lands, close against the edge of the Arctic Circle,
 THE FISHER FOLK 17
there lie famous fishing-grounds. In the clear
twilight of a Northern summer's dawn six fishing-
trawlers lay hove-to, clearing away their fishing
gear and stowing it inboard. The night's catch
had been a good one, and the little craft rode heavily
to the swell, close packed to the decks and over with
the gleaming fish.
In the deck-house of No. 1 Trawler Lieutenant
John F. MacCabe, R.N.V.R., sat by a table sipping
a cup of steaming cocoa, the while he studied a
course from a greasy, tattered chart. From the deck
the clumping of heavy sea-boots and the grinding
of steam-winches told that his morning watch was
at hand when, admiral of the tiny squadron, he
must take his command safely to port.
Forrard, the look-out man was in wordy argu-
ment with the ship's boy, a youngster of fifteen, on
the respective merits of the Adriatic and Malacca
Straits as fishing-grounds (they had seen mine-

sweeping service in both places) when

"
Yon's a strange beastie, ah'm thinking," said
Look Out, pointing away to the port beam.
A dull swirl of water edged with silver broke
away from the back of some creature of the sea as
it came to the surface some 7,000 yards away.
" " "
Gawd !
gasped the boy. What the 'ell
"
is it ?
"
Object, porrt bow," called Look Out through
funnelled hands.
MacCabe raised his head as a medley of strange

jargon, oaths and excited discussion sent the gulls

screaming in chorus away from their breakfast.
•

1 tell ye 'tis a U-boat,"

18 THE SEAFARRRS
kw
Ye're daft, ye fule. What budy over saw a
boat under water the
Tor likes o' yon."
"
Aye, mebbe. And ye'll say, nae doot, what
way she came oot there. Just drooped oot i'rac
the sky likely."
MacCabe hoisted himself on to the tiny bridge
and seized a telescope. One look was enough,
but brought a long whistle of astonishment to
it

his lips. Then a short, swift command. The signal

cones were run up.
"
Steam full pressure. Line ahead on No. 1.
Three cables length. Course so and so." *
Never, I dare swear, did the ships of the Second
Battle Squadron swing into "line ahead" with
finer precision than did those half-dozen little
weather-scarred trawlers of the Scots fishermen.
And, as they took the line, a great column of water
shot up from the burst of a 6-inch shell 50 yards
astern of the leading ship.
No longer a doubt whether it was a sea-serpent
or an enemy ship. But still men rubbed their eyes
with amazement
they looked at her. Who,
as
indeed, had ever seen an under-watcr boat " the
'

likes o' yon The length of her no one could

!

gauge, but with her massive conning-tower, her

masts, and heavy armament — two 6-inch guns, and
two smaller ones — she seemed more like a small
cruiserthan a submarine. Swift enough to steam
rings round the trawlers strong enough to blow
;

them out of the water as she pleased.

*
Line ahead, ships following in succession. Cable length, a
" "
cable indicates about 200 yards ; thus the trawlers would be
at about ono yards interval,
 THE FISHER FOLK 19
And now, as the trawlers began to plough heavily

along astern of their leader —

oh, so slowly, it seemed
— the submarine closed to shorter range and opened
fire with every gun that would bear. And gallantly
the trawler-men clapped-to the breeches of their
little pea-shooters to return the fire as best they

might.
"
Ye'll be wanting mebbe,"
fish to y're breakfasts,
called one. "Wcel, ye can mak a braw meal frae
that yin
" —
and a fat mackerel went skimming
over the side, hurled in derision towards the enemy.
Mighty waterspouts from the bursting shells
soared heavenward around and over the leading
trawler,drenching the decks, carrying herrings,
dabs and mackerel swirling through the scuppers.
And MacCabe clung to the rail with one hand,
megaphone in the other, eyes fixed on the enemy,
watching and answering every point of the helm
he might make. It was seamanship once again
which must decide.
Six hundred yards astern the second of the line
pushed steadily after her leader. And full across
her decks, from her squat bows to her square-cut
after structure, there swept a hailstorm of deadly

shrapnel.
Down drops gunner-hand, a great gash
the
across the forehead. And, on the moment, a second
clambers cursing over the slippery fish to take his
place. The look-out man forrard suddenly gives
a choking gasp, claps hand to throat, and pitches
heavily backward into the sea.
One after another the men of No. 2 go down
under the storm of lead. But ever the master holds
2o THE SEAFARERS
the wheel, swinging point by point over to the
it

lender's signal. ever is there a man in place

And
to heave a cartridge into the tiny gun, swing the
breech to and fire.
The submarine alters her course in a new man-
oeuvre — to work ahead of the line. But the Lieu-
tenant, acting-Admiral, is ready for it. Over on the
new course steers the U-boat, and as promptly is
the challenge answered. Never for a moment does
the little flotilla lose its formation. With superb
handling and consummate seamanship the trawlers
are swung over to keep the enemy ever on the beam
that the tiny guns may still be brought to bear.
Sternly, methodically, do the men work. Sud-
denly, with a freshening wind from the right quarter
comes the looked-for chance to pour out a screen of
smoke from the boxes.
With muttered curses (can. you not hear him ?)
the U-boat commander needs must alter course again
to work round the black cloud which veils his prey.
But now the hour grows desperate for the fisher-
" "
men. It is back to the wall
once again for that
breed of men who are ever at their greatest at the
end of a losing fight. Fifteen rounds of shell left
to the leading trawler, ten rounds to No. 2, twenty

maybe to each of the others.

Every man of No. 2 is down wounded, some are
dead. But still there is a gunner left to carry on
with hands which drip blood as they jerk the spent
cartridge from the breech of the poor little out-
ranged gun.
Eight rounds left, and — " Prepare to ram,"
signals the leader.
 THE FISHER FOLK 21

The end at last. Well, 'twas a good light, and

"
By God, she's closing us," mutters MacCabc
"
in excitement. They'll never be such fools," and
he props the telescope against the bridge screen.
The submarine commander, cursing (one imagines)
at the delay in finishing a trifling job, began to steer
in his ship to deal the knock-out blow.
"
Geddes," MacCabc hailed his gunner through
" and
the megaphone, she's closing us. Canny, lad,

you'll get her. Aim forrard."

"
Aye, aye, sir," sang Geddes as he twirled the
elevating gear.
Crash! And
a shell burst clean amidships No. 1,
hurling MacCabe stunned to the deck.
But the gunner of No. 2 had seen the enemy
manoeuvre.
" and
The Lord hae delivered him tae us,"
spitting on hands he rammed a shell home.
his
"
One, two, three, four," he slowly counted, and
fired.
The shell smashed in on the tail of the submarine
as she steamed straight for the line.
" but th'
'
Mistimed her speed," he muttered,
next time." And home into the breech went another
shell.
A sudden burst of flame from the U-boat's bows,
and dimly through the smoke the tense watchers
from the trawlers saw the formal 6-inch gun heave
"
up and plunge over into the sea. Geddes had gone
cannily." A mighty Scottish cheer rang over the
waters.
Round swung the submarine to bring her aft
gun to bear.
22 THE SEAFARERS
Eight rounds, Geddes, my lad Eight rounds !

left. Canny, boy, canny !

Crack went the little gun once more, and fair —

and true into the base of the conning-tower burst
the shell. Another burst of flame a great column ;

of smoke sweeping upwards, drifting over the sea,

shrouding the U-boat.

Slowly, sullenly the black cloud melted into the
silvery light thinned into a shimmering veil of
;

mist ;
And only the gulls and the sea-
vanished.
birds skimming downwards hovered for a moment
to mark another ocean grave.
"
This was a fisherman's fight," wrote Lieutenant
MacCabe concluding his despatch. "And without
doubt they put up a right stout one. I deem it
an honour to have been in command of them."
And so say all of us !

The Island Race

From the seafarers of our Island coast-line we
turn to the Fourth Estate of the British Navy. And
the fourth is all, for almost may Ave
the greatest of
say that it embraces this entire Sea Service of ours.
How to define it I know not, for how may we set
a boundary in words to that which is of the spirit ?
The professional Service of the Royal Navy we can
understand, and the officers and the men who are
born and bred in it. The Mercantile Marine, the
Commerce and the carrying trade of the Empire,
that, too, we appreciate
just as we understand the
folk who seek a livelihood from the harvesting of
 THE ISLAND RAGE 23
the sea. But how may we understand rightly the
Call which summons the tens of thousands of lands-
men to a sea service or the nobility of spirit which
;

pulses through the veins of our womenkind, land-

folk though they be, when a cruel sea-death beckons
them beneath the waves ?

It the story of these brothers and sisters of

is

ours which has been the wonder of the world in

these four years of the Great War. It is this story
of an Island Race which will throb through the
centuries to come. Perchance it has been the last
fight in which, as an Island Empire, we shall ever
strive. Well, at the least, it has been to us a worthy
one. We have wrought, I dare to think, better than
we can now imagine. We may look back through
the years with confidence and, invoking
"
the spirits
of our fathers that start from every wave," point
with pride to this our temper and handiwork of
"
later days. As it was in the beginning, is now."
Turn down the scroll of our Island history, glance
here and there and you shall read how the landsmen
ever hearkened to the Call of the Sea.
In the dim, far-off days of the mighty Saxon King

Who did first

Willi prescient wisdom from the slips set free
The keels, those far forerunners of thy Fleet :

the men who

served the ships, trading and Navy —
there was no distinction between them were for —
the most part landsmen. Through the summer
months they kept the seas, but with the time of
harvest they returned to their lands and holdings,
for they were farmers and husbandmen. And so
24 THE SEAFARERS
through the frost-bound winter days to the awakening
of spring and the sowing of the seed.
William of Normandy won to a landing and
the Kingship of this realm because he remembered
what Saxon Harold had forgotten, the meaning
and use of Sea Power. Richard of the Lion Heart,
the first of our King Admirals to adventure an English
fleet into distant seas, won his victory over the

Saracen warships by the valour of landsmen, soldiers

and sailors too as
they were.
through those earlier years of our history
All
you may find amongst our Island folk the steady
growth of a realisation, vague only at first, that
the sea was all in all to us as a people.

Keep then the sea that is the wall of England :

And then is England kept by God His hand ;

wrote an old chronicler five hundred years ago.* It

was only when we failed to remember this that
disaster and defeat overtook us.
But it was in the Great Age of adventure under
the Tudor Kings, Henry VII. to Elizabeth, that
the Call of the Sea swept like a gale through
England. Over the heads of the coast-dwellers
was the spindrift borne, far away inland. And
the salt spray beat upon the casements of the town-
dwellers, of the folk who had never looked upon
the majesty of sea- waves and recked little of the
*
From the famous " Libel of English Policy," published circa
1420. The introduction runs " —
Here beginneth the Prologue
:

of the processe of the Libel of English policie, exhorting all England

to kcepe the sea ..
showing what profite cometh thereof and
. :

alsowind worship and salvation to England, and to all English-

men." The "Libel" is reprinted in " Hakluyt's Voyages"
'Everyman's Library"), vol. i., page 174.
 THE ISLAND RAGE 25

faring of ships. And the tang of the salt filled

their nostrils, and the savour of it was heady as
new wine, so that men turned from the peace of
the countryside and the busy hum of the cities
to make strange ventures in the lands of the Golden
West.
Students of the law, apprentices and clerks,
men from the loom and the plough, priests and
herdsmen, miners and Court exquisites, all were
represented in the tiny ships that beat onward
across the Atlantic or breasted the ice-floes of the
stern Arctic seas. The story tells even of a reverend
Canon of St. Paul's Cathedral who forsook his
cloistered ease to go a-voyaging, a gentleman ad-
venturer, to the coasts of Guinea.
And how cruel the seafaring in those tiny ships
must have been The Gulden Hind, which carried
!

Drake and his men around the world, was but 200
tons burthen. A modern submarine displaces 1,000
tons submerged.

Turn, now, fur a moment to August, 1914, four

hundred years later, and note how the landsmen
hearkened once again to the call.
At the opening of the War, nothing more aston-
ished officers and ratings of the Royal Navy than
the odd (to a sailor) assortment of men who rolled
up to serve in the Grand Fleet. Enlisting at Ports-
mouth, Devonport, and other of the naval bases,
they would be allotted to various ships, there to
be told off for jobs.
You picture the commander of one of the light
cruisers sitting at a table on deck the while a long
26 THE SEAFARERS
"
queue of these hostility
lw
men (as the Navy terms
them) passes before him.
" "
Well, my lad," to the first man, what was
"
your job in civil life ?
" "
Stableman, sir.
" "
Stableman !

You wouldn't think that the Royal Navy has

much use for stablemen, would you ? But doubt-
less the man had heard tell of the Horse Marines,
and so he would be welcome.
" '

Next What was your job, my

! lad ?
"
Ah was a market gardener "—this in broad
Somerset.
" "
Good lord ejaculates the Commander.
!

Well, the Navy is not often at a loss, and the

master-at-arms, after turning over the problem for
a moment, suggested that the lad from Somerset
might well turn a hand to weighing out the potatoes
for the ship's company.
All the morning the Commander worked con-
scientiously down the line. Compositors, jew's-
harp makers, mortuary attendants, match dippers,
skin dressers, dairy farmers, clerical robe makers,
—
and brokers' men the Commander staggered blindly
down into the ward-room at 11.30 for the stiff est
cocktail the mess-man could concoct 11.40 saw ;

him back again.

Carpet-menders, and pawnbrokers'
pedieurists,
assistants perambulator makers and potboys, pickle-
—
;

"
bottlers and theatre " chuckers-out so they passed
by. The last of the line came to the table.
'

Well, sir, I was a painter," he answered.

'

Thank the
:

lord !
gasped the Commander,
 THE ISLAND RACE 27
"
almost past speech. A man who can do a decent
"
bit of work at last !

So the master-at-arms escorted the painter forrard,

gave him some pots of paint and some brushes,
and left him to carry on at a gun-shield.
Half-wav through the afternoon the Commander
strolled forrard out of curiosity to see how the man
had done his job. All over the gun shield was
pictured some amazing post-impressionist sunset,
Avhile pots and paint lay sprawling about the deck
in a most glorious mess. It was the last straw.
' "
Painter thundered
! the Commander.
'

Painter, did you say ? What in heaven's name

'

was the painting job you did before the war ?

'

Well, sir," said the man,

"
I er er well, I — — —
generally used to exhibit at the Royal Academy."

Now these
"
hostility men — the market gar-
"

deners, match-dippers, and like the — were volun-

teers,not pressed men. And you would think that
when it came to doing their bit they would have
preferred to do it with the good solid earth under
their feet. they really wanted to get wet they
If
knew that they could get all the wet they wanted,
and more, in the trenches in Flanders. Why they
should prefer to go bumping about on the breezy,
briny, billowy ocean, remains a mystery or it ;

would remain a mystery did we not realise some-

thing of the innate sea-breed of the men, the cen-
turies-old traditionof an Island Race which runs
in the veins of them and, so I hold, of each one
of us.
There is
hardly an incident in the sea-warfare
28 THE SEAFARERS
of these last years which has not had a precedent
in former sea-wars of ours. But again I remark,
in nothing has the spirit of the race shone forth in

brighter splendour than in its response to the Call

of the Sea.
Penetrate into the most unlikely districts the —
horrible, verminous slums of Sheffield, with a family
living in each corner of a room the teeming squalor
;

of the Leeds quarters the drab joylessness of the

—
;

Potteries everywhere you will hear the same tale

of the men who have gone a-seafaring. Certainlv
not in great numbers as numbers go, for the Navy
at its greatest point of expansion in 1918 was but
a very small Service, in number of personnel, be-
side the seven millions of the Land Army. It
counted, as I have told, less than half a million
men. But rather in point of percentage.
You who chance to read can, I sure,am reckon
amongst friends and acquaintances many a man
who, living a land life with never a thought ex-
pressed of the sea, yet hearkened to the Call. Men
who fled, maybe, from the musty study of the Law,
or theactor-haunted Bodegas of the Strand, or
the whirling presses of newspaper-land, to revel in
the unceasing toil and danger of a motor-launch
in the Dover Patrol or of a mine-sweeper in the
frozen Shetland seas.
Glancing back again into our history, some of
the most remarkable instances of landsmen turning
to sea- warfare may be found in the armies of Richard
Cromwell. In 1653 the first Commissioners of the
Admiralty were appointed by Act of Parliament,
and out of the eleven men so appointed no fewer
 THE ISLAND RAGE 29
than eight were Army officers : four generals, three
colonels,and a major. Of these Robert Blake
became the most famous. Mr. and Mrs. John Citizen
of to-day recall his name principally from the exploit
"
narrated in the popular song, The Admiral's
Broom."
But Robert Blake first won to fame as a soldier.
He served in the Army until he was fifty years
of age, and then went to sea for the first time in
his life. But by his service afloat he is accounted
one of the two or three greatest sea-captains that
England has ever known.
Then there were Deane, Monck, and Montagu,
all Army men, and they all became fine seamen.

"It is a significant fact," says Sir William Laird

"
Clowes, that when, under the Commonwealth,
Great Britain entered upon a more ambitious and
difficult naval policy than she had previously dared
to essay, the chiefs who best served her at sea were,
by training, land officers, and consequently men
of wider attainments and more general education
and experience than belonged to the regular sea
officers ofthe time."*
Prince Rupert, a grandson of James I., another
soldier and sailor, was indeed an "Admirable Crich-
ton." He
served on shore in the Civil War, was a
barrister-at-law, one of the first Fellows of the
Royal Society, commanded for a time a squadron
was a notable scientist, became our
of semi-pirates,
Commander-in-Chief at sea in the third Dutch war,
and was Governor of Windsor Castle.
•" The A History." W. Laird Clowes. Vol.
Royal Navy. ii.,

pat>e 'J7.
30 THE SEAFARERS
Thus far the men of the Island Race. How
shall we tell of the nobility of soul that has made
our women so worthy to be the mothers, wives, and
sweethearts of those sea-heroes ? Or, rather, should
we not say that has inspired the seamen to deeds
and to deaths worthy of their womenfolk ?
A merchant tramp put into a British port one
morning and unloaded her cargo. She had run
the gauntlet of a submarine attack and it had been
a very close thing. Her crew was not a British one,
save for the skipper and mate, and when it came
to clearing port to return in ballast to Norway
the men refused to go aboard and sail.
The skipper argued and cursed them for chicken-
livered rabbits, but failed to move them.
Down to the wharfside came the skipper's wife :

learned how
things were.
" "
All right," she said, just wait a bit."
In a quarter of an hour she was back again,
a porter trundling a box in front of her.
" "
Now," she called to the deck-hands, I'm
coming on this trip along o' my old man. An'
what's more, I've got my best hat inside that box,
and I'll see the Huns somewhere before they get
that."
And the deck-hands clambered back inboard
with their tails between their legs, shamed by the
pluck and spirit of an Englishwoman.
"
The women have been splendid," is one of the
remarks which has been uttered most frequently
by the statesmen or publicists of all Allied coun-
tries. We know well how they have filled the
" "
places of our men and carried on in the most
 THE ISLAND RACE 31
arduous tasks 011 the land, in factories, and else-
where. is, I am certain, not fully realised
But it

how gloriously our women have faced death upon

the high seas at the instance of the Hun murderers.
Not once nor twice, but scores of times, from the
sinking of the Aguila in March, 1915, when the
stewardess and the only woman passenger were
murdered, the latter by gun-fire, down to the last
awful outrage in 1918.
How many of our women have been thus done
to death on the seas I do not know during the —
first two years of the submarine warfare the num-
—
ber was nearly 1,500 but this I do know. In
every case where a ship was carrying any women
on board of her, and where the records remain,
you will find testimony to their splendid courage.
"
The women took their places in the boats as

calmly as if they were going down to their meals,

and when in the boats they began singing."* That
is
only typical.

There was a ship of ours called the Llandovery

Castle —
a hospital ship in the Canadian Medical
Service. On a midsummer night of 1918 she was
inward bound to Liverpool from Halifax, N.S., with
a medical staff and crew on board, 258 souls. She
was torpedoed without warning 11G miles from
land, and sank 234 perished with her.
;

Amongst the staff were fourteen Sisters of the

Canadian Nursing Service. Each one of them had
gone to France from Canada on active service with
*
Testimony of the captain of the liner City of Birmingham,
torpedoed without warning, November 27th, 19X6,
32 THE SEAFARERS
the Canadian contingent, and had worked in
first

casualty clearing stations under shell-fire. Now

they were making the voyage to and from Canada
by way of holiday and rest.
Of these Sisters the senior in service was Mar-
garet Marjorie Fraser. And there was never a
Canadian —
nor any man that had met her but —
held Sister Fraser in dear, affectionate regard. To
her, friend and enemy if wounded were alike —men
to be tended with all her skill, all her pity. Many
scores Germans had passed beneath her care
of ;

many cup of water had she held to their parched

a
lips many the letters she had written for them,
;

dying messages to their people in Germany. But

these things were only the proud duty of every
member of the Nursing Service of the Red Cross —
save in Germany.
The ship was struck within ten minutes she
;

had gone down. But in those few brief minutes

the fourteen Sisters, clad, most of them, in night-
dress and slippers, had been mustered on deck
and placed in a boat under the charge of two
or three seamen and a sergeant of the Medical
Service.
Into the unknown terror of that black, seething
waste of waters the little boat was lowered from
the davits. With a couple of axes the seamen slash
at the ropes to set her free as she takes the water.
One axe breaks then the other. And the boat
;

grinds and crashes against the side of the sinking

ship, tossed this way and that on the waves.
"
Do you think there's any chance ? said
'

Nurse Fraser to the sergeant. And she spoke as

 THE ISLAND RAGE 33

calmly, as dispassionately as though she were asking

the hour of day.
And
the sergeant in silence shook his head.
Now
the ropes give close by the runners, and
the boat is free. Free But no human skill can
!

drive her away from the cruel suction of the ship.

The oars snap and break as the men try to fend
her away from the side.

Slowly, remorselessly, the boat with her precious

freight is drawn
by a giant hand towards the stern
of the ship. With a moaning crash the after-deck
breaks and dissolves into fragments. Against a last
pitiful effort the boat is dragged into the whirlpool,
oversets and is gone. And with her, never rising
again, until that Day when the Sea shall give up
its Dead, sank the fourteen devoted women.
The sergeant was the only one from the boat
who was saved. But this has he left upon record.
From the moment when they were brought on deck
to face the certainty of a cruel death never a whimper,
never a murmur was heard from any one of those
noble Sisters. They went to their deaths gallantly
and proudly as British women have ever faced death
on the Seas, whether under the Hand of God or at
the bloody will of a murderer.
True daughters of the great Sea Mother, who
set within you the heroic unfettered Soul, your
bodies are at rest upon her gracious bosom. But
through the ages your Spirit shall live on in flaming
splendour to guide and inspire the sons and daughters
that shall come hereafter.*
* Ihad thought to demand that there should be included in
the Terms of Peace to be dictated provision whereby there should
D
34 THE SEAFARERS
You, Canada You will not forget. But lest
!

we of England, we of other Nations in our Common-

wealth, who also sorrow proudly for our Dead —
lest we should sometimes fail a little in remembrance,
here I set forth in poor tribute the Roll of this your
Sacrifice :
—
Christine Campbell.
Carola Josephine Douglas.
Alexina Dussault.
Minnie Follette.
Margaret Jane Fortescue.
Margaret Marjorie Fraser.
Minnie Katherine Gallaher.
Jessie Mabel McDiarmid.
Mary Agnes McKenzie.
Rena McLean.
MacBelle Sampson.
Gladys Irene Sare.
Anna Irene Stamers.
Jean Templeman.

Now I would tell of the courage of yet another,

a wife and a mother. Not because it was the courage
of one woman, but because it belonged to hundreds
of thousands of women of our Race. It needs but
a glance at the " In
'

Memoriam columns of The

be erected in each of the largest cities of Germany, or at least in
Berlin, a noble monument to the memory of British -women mur-
dered by Germans on the High Seas. The monument to be designed
and executed by our own people, tiie cost being levied upon the
women of Germany who have abetted and gloried in the infamy
of their submarine commanders. There is precedent for this in
the great memorial arch which Germany compelled the Chinese
Lo erect in Peking. But such suggested monument would be re-
garded by the Germans, not as a badge of infamy but as a glorifica-
tion of their valour (sic).
 THE ISLAND RAGE 35
Times, and of all daily journals of the Country, down
to the humblest evening local paper, to realise how,
during the Great War, the women of Britain faced
the sacrifice of their sons and brothers.
It was after the Victory of Jutland Bank. In
a certain great naval base (it matters not which),
there are dingy suburbs, peopled by seafaring folk,
which stretch for miles in mean streets and dismal,
meagre houses.
In one of those streets there are fourteen houses
all adjoining, in each one of which the mother of
the little home had been newly made a widow. Her
man had gone down in the Battle of Jutland.
And I spoke with one of those women, and this
was how she answered.
"
There's some as says," she remarked quietly,
"
that Beatty didn't ought to have taken on the
whole of the German fleet with them battle-cruisers
of his. But my man was in one o' them cruisers,
and he went down in her, and I know what he'd ha'
said ;
he wouldn't ha' run away not if there' d been
ten times as many."
And then she went on, pointing to some children
in the corner of the room and ah — ! the ring of
ineffable pride in her voice :

"
And look at them children. II is children.
Think of the blood that's in 'cm. His blood. Think
what that means to England and the next generation
with the blood of a father like that in 'em."
But I would say more than that. I would say :

"
Think what it means to England and the next
generation with the Mood of a woman like that in
their veins."
 36 THE SEAFARERS
In such fashion, then, do I picture the British
Navy, a mighty Sea Service of Four Estates, yet one
and in spirit indivisible: —
(1) The Royal Navy, of fighting ships and their
auxiliaries ;

(2) The Mercantile Marine, the greatest industry of

the Realm and the most stupendous monu-
ment of human energy and achievement that
the world has ever seen, and from which the
Royal Navy was born ;

(3) The Seafaring Folk of the coast line and ;

(4) The Land Folk, men and women, in whose veins

run the tradition and spirit of the Island
Race.

The more one studies Britain's sea-history the

more surely does it appear that her Sea-Service has
ever been one belonging especially to the people,
the democracy. Comparing it, I mean, with the
land-service of the
Army.
As everyone knows (or does everyone know ?)
the maintenance of an Army for Great Britain has
to be sanctioned each year by Parliament. The
maintenance of the Sea-Service is of the people,
and is as the sea itself. The Mercantile
free as
Marine, in the far distant past, was created by
individual enterprise. Its adventuring and achieve-
ment through the centuries has been that of in-
dividuals, of the people, sometimes supported, some-
times hampered, by the Government of the day.
And yet so mighty a force is it in its embracement
of the whole world that our people who have created
it,who support it, and who live only by its service,
our people know little or nothing about it. An
astonishing paradox indeed !
 THE ISLAND RAGE 37
"
The Army had ever been a Service of the aris-
"
tocracy," the Royal Navy one of the
democracy."
The Navy is a poor man's profession in which ini-
tiative and efficiency have always counted towards
"
promotion. A military command called for exalted
"
rank," Lord Rosebery once remarked, or the

seniority which often spelled senility."

In the Army the number of men who, before the
War, rose from the ranks to posts of high command
might be counted on the fingers of the hand. But
in the Royal Navy some of the most famous names
in our history arc those of men who fought their
way up from the bottom of the ladder. John Jervis,
Admiral of the Fleet Earl St. Vincent, as he came to
be, was the son of a country lawyer. Collingwood
was the son of a merchant. Nelson himself was
the son of a country parson, and served an appren-
ticeship on board a merchant ship.

The Mariners of England !It is a proud title.

Once again have the bearers of it won for themselves
in the Cause which they have lately served, the
honour and gratitude of their Country and their
Country's Allies.
How have they earned that gratitude ? " What
'
has the Navy done ? I have yet to speak more

fully of the Royal Navy, the fighting Senior Service,

and then must we turn to consider the question and
find an adequate reply. Else will this brief intro-
duction of the characters in the great drama seem
but windy boasting.
Yet will I dare now something of a reply and
set down here that which should rightly come as
38 THE SEAFARERS
an epilogue. And I find the reply in words written
to his countrymen many a long year ago by a gallant
and courteous enemy, the Dutch Admiral De Ruyter,
after he had beaten in fair fight the English Fleet.
" "
all that
But," so he wrote in his despatch,
we discovered was that Englishmen might be killed,
and English ships burnt, but that English courage
was invincible."
THE TRADITION OF THE
ROYAL NAVY
 II

THE TRADITION OF THE

ROYAL NAVY
Flaunt out sea your separate flags of nations !

Flaunt out visible as ever the various ship-signals I

But do you reserve especially for yourself and for the soul of man one
flag above all the rest,
A spiritual woven signal for all nations, emblem of man elate above

death,
Token of all brave captains and all intrepid sailors and males,
And all that went down doing their duly,
Reminiscent of them, twined from all intrepid captains young or old,
A pennant universal, subtly waving all lime, o'er all brave sailors,
All seas, all sliips.
—^alt Whitman.

There should be a legend (if there is I do not know

it) which tells how once upon
a day the great god
Thor delved from the earth a massive bar of dun-
coloured iron. That he chiselled upon it mystic
runes, and set it upon shipboard to sail forth to
the destiny which he decreed in the writing.

ileu iron to reil soil.

^Ijipimut attu rljapman sljall t"asl;ion me.

.^Ijiuman and toarrior sljall nmlu me.

And the dragon-prowed ship sailed on across

the waters of the Northern Seas questing southern-
wards for a shore which should be red as the iron
which she bore. And the seas grew narrower so
that one standing by the steering-oar of the ship
41
42 THE SEAFARERS
might descry the cliffs upon either hand. Tawny
of colour they were to the left hand of dazzling
;

fairness to the right. And the ship sailed on, passing

between them.
Now in her sailing, as she came to breast the
great sweep of the waves where they roll in from
the Western Ocean upon the Narrow Seas, behold,
upon the right there rose a land gleaming with colour
like to a ruby set within platinum. Red as the ruby
was the rich loam of that fair country and the;

Viking-ship, heaven-guided, turned aside upon her

course for her quest was ended.
Into a deep cove she sailed and there, embeached,
yielded up her gift upon the shore. And the planks
and timbers that were her body she strewed here
and there all upon the coast from one end to the
other.
Now the men of that country were tillers of the
soil (though some adventured a little way upon the
sea). And they found the magic iron upon the
beach and set to shaping and fashioning it, though
to what end they knew not. The timbers of
that great ship too they found. And the Spirit of
her entered into their souls so that they turned
more and more from tilling the soil to a more hardy
adventuring upon the seas, becoming shipmen and
merchants when beforetime they had been husband-
men.
The years passed into centuries, and the god-
given iron became a precious heritage. Fathers and
sons, they hammered and cast it into shape, ever
working upon it through the passing years. But
they knew not what they wrought nor why, though
 TRADITION OF ROYAL NAVY 43
little by little the iron came to the semblance of a
weapon.
And with the years the merchant shipmen of
that country became ever more and more hardy
and ventursome, so that the fame of their deeds
was carried to the ends of the world. And steadily
and surely by their thoughts and deeds was the
iron welded and fashioned and tempered until the
shape of it became certain. And lo it was a !

great Sword.
So the merchant seamen in all reverence bore
with them the Sword when they went a-faring.
And it became an emblem and a bond of brother-
hood to them. But never did they cease from
fashioning it to a finer temper and keenness, for
thus they showed their love and faith and gratitude.
Now the fair, red-soiled home of the seamen
was but a part of a lovely island. And so
little

doughty were the traffickings of those men through-

out the world that the Island country grew rich
and mighty by their valour.
And so it came that the Island must needs have
great ships built for its protection and for the guard-
ing of its commerce.
So the Rulers of the Island sent to the men of
—
that little red land and it was in the West and —
besought them to teach the building of ships-of-war
and to serve upon them against an enemy, setting
a pattern and example to other men of the Race.
And the men of the fair Western land came
gladly. And they bore with them, as the most
precious gift which they could bestow, the Sword
which they had fashioned.
44 THE SEAFARERS
Sturdy were the ships they builded ; nobly did
they serve them against all enemies. And with
the serving, so did the Sword become ever more
keenly tempered and exquisite in ornament and
its

Over all all lands was

seas and into
workmanship.
it borne, so that all men wherever it shone must

needs praise its beauty and hold in highest honour

the sea-warriors that bore it.

In every land where it shone flashing aloft,

sword and buckler both, there were wrongs righted,
the weak protected, justice dealt, tyranny o'er-
thrown. Chivalry to those it vanquished, humanity
and gentleness, these followed.
So in time there came the greatest war of all,
when a people, mad with lust and jealousy, strove
by every foulness and treachery to prevail against
the Men of the Sword and the peoples whom the
Sword protected. So they strove, and the more
foul and bloody their deeds the more brightly

gleamed the Sword, untarnished by speek of rust

or dirt. And at the last, so brilliant was its splendour,
so mighty the arms of the sea-warriors, that the
enemy, driven to a last attack, fell to the earth,
blinded by the glory of its lustre, and yielded them-
selves.
And the Island Kingdom was this dear land of
England. And the name of the fair country of
the red soil in the West was Devon, the cradle of
our seafaring race. And the name of the Sword
was " ftraoition of tbc Sea."

So would I frame the legend and seek to tell

by a parable how the Tradition of the Royal Navy
 TRADITION OF ROYAL NAVY 45
came to be the noble thing that it is to-day.
Not by a little has it been created. You must
needs go back through the centuries, pausing here
and there to note how this man and that, one ship
and her company and another gave to the fashion-
ing of it. And ever behind there rolls the eternal
mystery of the Sea ever there stands firm-set
;

the bond and brotherhood of the men who strive

unceasingly to pierce the veil of that mystery.

In the hands of officers of all ranks and ratings
"
of the Royal Navy to-day, the Tradition of the
has taken, not a new meaning, but a more
'

Sea
noble and spiritual a one. It has, indeed, become
" '
of which Walt
that signal for all nations
Whitman has written. Faced by the incredible
treachery and horror of the German submarine war-
fare, incited to retaliate by a sternness, an inhumanity
even, which all would have held legitimate, the
manhood Royal Navy held ever to the Tradi-
of the
tion of the Brotherhood and won for the Island
Race a glory which shall never fade.
We have come out of this business with clean
hands. I am not sure that this will not be our
proudest boast. We like to think now with pride
of the attitude which the Royal Navy adopted
when German submarine commanders began to
sink passenger and merchant ships without warn-
ing. Our people strongly urged (and naturally so)
that such Germans, when captured, should be
treated as felons, imprisoned, and put upon their
trial for murder.
But the Royal Navy would have none of it.
They must be treated as prisoncrs-of-war, said the
46 THE SEAFARERS
Navy. And the Navy had its own way. Quixotic,
perhaps. Foolish, you will say. Maybe it was.
During the concluding year of the war, however,
there was a definite change in the outlook of officers
and men. Horror had been heaped upon horror,
and the uttermost limits in the Pirate's Progress
had been reached.
"
Spurlos versenkt
" "
Sink with- —
out leaving a trace." Murder every soul on board
and smash up the ship's boats.
Even then the Royal Navy could not retaliate.
But, realising at long last that there was no shred
of humanity left to the Germans, fighting forces
or people, justice and reparation was called for.
There was only one way open at the time by which
the Navy demand, and it was taken.
could voice its

Officers, all ranks and ratings, backed up Mr. Have-

lock Wilson's manifesto of the Seamen's and Fire-
men's Union for a boycott of German goods, ships,
and sailors. It was a solid vote. I believe in
Devonport alone some 30,000 signatures were ob-
tained.
It isimpossible to realise how significant was
that change of attitude unless you know some-
thing of the meaning of Sea Tradition, and what
it had come to signify in the Royal
Navy; unless
you remember how intense is the feeling for chivalry
and humanity under all possible conditions.*

There is
story which Mr. Rudyard
a little

Kipling has outlined, f but I am sure that he will

* attention invited address of Admiral
Special is to the
Beatty reproduced in Appendix II.
*'
t Sea Warfare," Rudyard Kipling, page 209. (Macmillan
and Co.)
 TRADITION OF ROYAL NAVY 47

forgive me for repeating it in fuller detail.

I like

to set it side by side with another, to hang them up

as pictures in the panels of the mind, to glance
at occasionally and ponder over.
A flotilla went out one fine
of our destroyers

morning across the North Sea to strafe Zeppelins.

They put up a couple of the gas-bags, and for half
an hour or so things were pretty lively. The Zepps
up above were dropping bombs all over the place,
—
and well, the destroyers were giving back as good
as they received. Better, perhaps.
Right in the middle of the action one of the
destroyers signalled to the flotilla leader for per-
" " "
mission to stop ship and pick up ship's dog,"
which had fallen overboard.
Permission was given, the ship was stopped, and
a boat was lowered. The dog, so they said, was
swimming straight for the Belgian coast, and they
swore that he was a German spy in disguise. But
that didn'tmake any difference. They pulled after
him, picked him up, smacked him about the ears,
put him inboard the destroyer, and sent him below
to ruminate over his behaviour. What they must
have thought about it all up in the Zepps is left
to the imagination.
That is the first
picture. Here is the second.
It isn't a sea story, but it will serve.
It was on the Western Front. In one of the
villages which the Huns had just evacuated —
" '

according to plan —a patrol of our men, four

privates and a corporal, was marching up the street.
As they passed an old ruin of a church, battered
by shell lire, they heard, coming from inside (if you
 48 THE SEAFARERS
"
can call it inside "), cries and piteous moans, as
from some animal in agony.
They clambered over the ruins, following the
sound, and there, against a wall, they found a little
kitten, crucified, with its tiny paws twisted round
with strands of barbed wire.
One of our lads jumped forward with his cutters
and broke the wire. Upon the instant the four
men were blown to pieces by a Hun contact bomb
attached.
It is an enemy which knows well how to turn
to his own foul use this tradition of humanity and

chivalry.*
Now
the rescue of the ship's dog was, to the
ship's company of that destroyer, the most natural
thing in the world. It was all in the day's work.
And therein lies the whole point of the action.
The saving of life, even though it were only of a
dumb animal, is a matter of second nature to those
in whom the tradition of chivalry and humanity
is implanted.
The immortal
spirit of Nelson ever broods, they
say, in watchful guardianship over the Fleet. And,
with the saying, men most naturally think of his
great leadership as a fighting seaman. But seldom
has any great captain of men, one who by his life's
work should a noble example to his fellows,
set
seldom has any man given to the world so many
exquisite instances of humane feeling as Nelson
did. Nelson was the incarnate spirit of Sea Tradi-
*
Incidentally they have used the same method for murdering
—
our stretcher-bearer parties attaching a bomb to a dead German
left lying outside a trench. Our men would come to pick him up
to bury him, and would be blown to pieces.
 TRADITION OF ROYAL NAVY 49
tion,and to understand the Royal Navy of to-day
you must know first how Nelson lived.
One recalls, for instance, the disastrous attack
upon Teneriffe when with his right arm
Nelson,
shattered, nearly fainting with loss of blood, yet

through sheer will-power himself saving the lives

of his seamen strugo-lincr in the water one recalls —
how they tried to carry him on board the nearest
ship, the Seahorse.
How Nelson, even in his agony, remembered
that on board of her was Mrs. Fremantle, the bride
of one of his captains, and that Captain Fremantle
was on shore,dead or a prisoner. How they told
Nelson that was life or death to him.
it
" "
I had rather suffer death," he replied, than
alarm Mrs. Fremantle, by letting her see me in
this state, when I can give her no tidings what-
ever of her husband."
And so they carried him to his own ship.
One anecdote from a hundred others. With
such an exemplar is it to be wondered that the
tradition of the Royal Navy ranks as it does ? It
" '
is the same band of brothers to-day, even more
firmly united, that fought as Nelson's comrades at
the Rattle of the Nile.

Many a score of times have I seen how actual

and living a thing is this tradition. The passing
of centuries cannot affect the service of the sea.
The mighty battleships of the (irand Fleet to-day
differ only in degree from the triremes that fought
at Salamis. Always the first principles are the
same. So with the sea tradition,
e
50 THE SEAFARERS
have sat within the Admiral's eabin in the
I

Flag Ship of the Grand Fleet, and have listened to

the Commander-in-Chief as he has received in con-
ference the captains of a battleship squadron.
"
My captains," so the Admiral spoke of them.
And in that mode of thought and address was the
immemorial tradition of sea comradeship. For the
captains spoke with the Commander-in-Chief, and
he with them, exactly as Francis Drake spoke with
his commanders on the Spanish Main.* It is not,
cannot be so in the Army.
As between the officers, so is it between officers
and men. Of all my impressions of the Royal Navy
(forgive a momentary personal note), and I have
been with squadrons in all parts of the world, no
one is more vivid in my mind than that of the com-
radeship which exists between the officers and all
other ranks, petty officers, seamen, stokers, and
marines.
And once again I must needs think of Francis
Drake. (Give me time and I will find you a pre-
cedent in our sea-history for everything that has
befallen in these later years —
save only the con-
temptible surrender of the German fleet.) And
here I will set down
famous words upon which
his
this part of our Naval tradition would seem to have
been modelled. They were spoken far down the
* Those who have been honoured
by the privilege of a visit to
the Commander-in-Chief on board the Flag Ship will recall the
beauty of the furniture and appointments in the Admiral's cabin.
If they know their sea-history they will also recall how Francis
Drake carried for his table a noble store of gold and silver plate
that he might uphold in foreign parts the dignity of the Queen's
majesty, and of her Realm.
M^Mmhfe^%/?€
:

u**

ADMIRAL SIR DAVID BEATTY

 TRADITION OF ROYAL NAVY 51

South American coast during the voyage round the

world in the Golden Hind, at a time when Drake
was fighting hard against the discords of his
seamen.
" "
Here," he said, is such controversy between

the sailors and the gentlemen (officers) and such

stomaching between the gentlemen and sailors, that
it doth even make me mad to hear it. But, my
masters, I must have it left. For I must have the
gentlemen to haul and draw with the mariner, and
the mariner with the gentleman. What let us !

show ourselves all to be of a company, and let us

not give occasion to the enemy to rejoice at our
decay and overthrow. I would know him that
would refuse to set his hand to a rope, but I
know there is not any such here."
So Francis Drake insisted three hundred odd
years ago, and so is it to-day. The gentleman
hauls and draws with the mariner. A sound, healthy
tradition. The German thought he knew better.
lie, poor little man, thought to laugh in his sleeve
at a tradition which was old before he was born.
Well, he has learned his lesson, Not, for a moment,
though, that he is like to profit by it !

I cannot to define
this present-day
attempt
comradeship. It lies in a hundred odd trifles of
everyday routine on board His Majesty's ships.
Manners of approach, ways of speech, this and that
way of doing tilings. Nor does discipline relax for
a moment ;
il*
anything it is intensifiedby the com-
radeship. You will, for instance, never find in the
Itoyal Navy such a thing as slackness in saluting
52 THE SEAFARERS
or lack of proper respect towards an officer who
bears the King's commission.
One might illustrate in a hundred ways this
bond of comradeship between officer and man, but
there is one incident in particular which comes to
mind because it is so splendidly typical and because,
too, of the high rank of the officer concerned.
Of all those gallant Senior Officers retired from
the Navy prior to 1914, and who, at the outbreak
of the War, came back to serve in any subordinate
capacity and with any rank, no one is more famous
than Admiral Sir James Startin, Entering the Navy
in 1869 he fought in the Zulu War, the Egyptian

War, the Benin War, and the China War, won two
medals and two clasps for saving life, and retired,
Vice-Admiral, in, I believe, 1913.
But when the war came in 1914, Admiral Startin,
like manyanother good man and true, went down
to the Admiralty in Whitehall, and sat on the steps
"
and said Give me a rank, and give me a job,
:

I don't care what it is."

And because My Lords Commissioners are sea-
men themselves, and know the meaning of sea
tradition, they gave him a job and a rank. And
the rank was Lieutenant-Commander (which isn't
very much of a rank when you've been an Admiral),
and the job was the command of a flotilla of mine-
sweeping trawlers. And so Lieutenant-Commander
Startin, R.N.R., at the age of fifty-nine, began once
again at the bottom of the ladder because there
was sea service to be performed, and because the
tradition of the Royal Navy enjoins that a man's
service shall end only with his death.
 TRADITION OF ROYAL NAVY 53
Now I spoke one day in 1917 to a senior Naval
Officer in the Grand Fleet, and asked him if he knew
Admiral Startin.
" "
Know him !
'

he replied, he is the bravest

man in the
Navy."
The bravest man in the Navy ! And that was
the tribute of a brother officer. Well, you shall
hear.

Early in 1918, having won his way up to the

rank of Commodore, R.N.R., Sir James Startin was
in command of the mine-sweeping base at the mouth
of the Firth of Forth. Out one morning in the
Firth in a small ship Admiral Startin (as we must
call him) sighted one of the launches of his flotilla
heavily on fire. She carried a lot of oil, the fire
had got to it and the engine-room was a roaring
furnace.
"
The Admiral closed the launch in his ship. Any-
one on board her?" he asked. And they told him
that one of the engineers was still in the engine-
room.
There is no stopping Admiral Startin in a
case like that, many others had often learned,
as
and, shaking off all attempts to hold him back, the

Admiral clambered straight on board and plunged

into the hell of flame.
Fighting his way along the deck he got some-
how into the engine-room. Groping on hands and
knees he found the engineer lying unconscious by
the With a mighty effort the Admiral
tubes.

dragged him out, fought a way back again with

the body in his arms, and so lowered him over the
side.
54 THE SEAFARERS
The engineer, alas, was dead, but there is no
doubt that had he not been past human aid the
Admiral would have saved his life.
Such is the comradeship between officers and
men of the Royal Navy. An Admiral and an en-
gineer. Such is the tradition of the Navy. They
awarded the Albert Medal to Admiral Startin, and
— he was sixty-three years old when he won it.
Chivalry and humanity and with the German
;

submarine warfare when the murderers were, more

than once, taken almost red-handed. But a British
naval officer does not renounce his right of man-
hood even with a German prisoner-of-war.
There was a certain U-boat which had been
taking its toll of shipping. But the avengers were
on its track, and one fine morning the U-boat had
to come to the surface and surrender her commander
and crew to a British destroyer.
As is the way in the Royal Navy the British
commander placed his cabin and wardrobe at the
disposal of the captured enemy officer commanding.
The German officer thanked his chivalrous captor
by spitting in his face.
Without a moment's hesitation the British officer
got in a splendid left, and with a clean upper cut
on the point of the chin sent the German spinning
overboard into the sea.

Leaving him there a minute or so to get

for

thoroughly wet, the destroyer commander then dived

overboard after the German, picked him up, and
hauled him inboard again. Then the German went
below.
I like that story.
 TRADITION OF ROYAL NAVY 55
The tradition of the Royal Navy to-day is, as
I have suggested, the outcome of centuries. You
may compare it to a mighty oak-tree which has
sprung from a tiny acorn, growing steadily through
the years. Now its branches spread throughout the
world, and in every country that tradition is the
synonym for everything that is most noble, most
efficient, most chivalrous.
Nor is that merely a figure of speech. Our
people, I am sure, have no conception how the folk
of foreign countries regard the Royal Navy. In
lands which border upon the sea it is a living, prac-
tical reality in the far interior of the great con-
:

tinents has become a story of legendary renown.

it

Four hundred miles up the great Yang-tse-Kiang

river an ocean-going ship may steam towards the
heart of China, and unload at Hankow. Hundreds
of miles beyond that, by the rapids of Ichang, I
came one day by a bend in the river. And as I
rounded the corner I saw, incredible of the vision,
the White Ensign of the Royal Navy fluttering above
the low tree-tops. A British gunboat Had I !

never before felt pride in our sea-power and the

Navy indeed my heart throbbed to it then.
You know our fighting
''

ships, then ?
'

I said
to the headman of a near-by village.
"
'
We know them," said the Chinese. Your
iirc-dragon junks are mighty upon all the rivers.
Not want to talk with them."
To a little mountain village Roumania there
<>!'

came the news (from German sources) of the great

German victory over the British Fleet at Jutland
Bank. Even the British public had been staggered by
56 THE SEAFARERS
the idiotic communique issued that Saturday morn-
ing by our own Admiralty. Not so the Roumanians.
Their faith was greater.
'

Quite impossible," they said to the German

"
telegram, the British Navy can never be defeated.
The Germans lie." And a fortnight passed before
the truth reached their ears. But their hearts had
told them long before.

Like a diamond with its hundred facets of

light, so is the infinite variety of the Royal Navy's
tradition. But I shall fail completely in purpose my
unless —
you appreciate this that there is no phase
of that tradition which is not
directly a part of the
Navy's everyday life and work. Officers and men
do not talk about it, do not even think about it
(save indirectly), for to act up to the tradition in
every hour of their sea-service is with them but a
part of their being.
When Lieutenant F. W. Craven, R.N., in his little
T.B.D. saved some 500 lives from a sinking ship in a
heavy sea and a thick mist off the south of Ireland
early in 1918— saved them by such consummate
seamanship as no sailor there had ever witnessed
—
before he was only doing what every other
"
owner
'

of a destroyer would at least have tried to do, maybe

giving his life in the attempt. That piece of work,

magnificent in its gallantry and skill, was to Lieu-
tenant Craven no more than a momentary extension
of his patrol routine. His portrait did not appear
in the Daily Wire (he saw to that), and if by some
mischance an enterprising reporter had managed
to get it
printed I honestly believe that the editor
 TRADITION OF ROYAL NAVY 57
would have been served by the commander with a
"
writ for defamation of character."
Then there was the commanding officer of a
motor-launch serving with a flotilla of mine-sweeping
trawlers. (The incident is taken at random from
scores like it, and such as my Naval acquaintances
would scorn to mention.) A particularly ugly-looking
mine was sighted adrift. A very heavy sea was
running, and the crack shots of the trawlers failed
to hit and explode it by rifle fire. The officer ran
his launch close to the mine (a sea might have carried
her crashing on top of it), and then coolly jumped
overboard, swam to passed a tow-line through
it,

some eyelet holes in the mine, and so had it hauled

ashore.
That mine had to be got rid of, and as the method
employed seemed the most simple and direct the
"
officer carried on." I have no doubt he had

forgotten all about the incident before the week

was out.
One is irresistibly reminded of the old fisherman
(in the war's early days) who was seen hauling a
great German mine alongside a pier of a certain
south-coast resort.
"
Take the damned thing away," shouted a
"
horrified officer. It'll
explode."
"
'E be quite armless, mister," said the fisher-
"
man. Oi've knocked they 'orns off wi' a boat-
'00k."
But that by the way.

The tradition, and the spirit in which it is upheld.

The two are as one, for no tradition may exist by
58 THE SEAFARERS
lip-service only. And
the spirit which upholds the
tradition of the Royal Navy is the spirit which wins
battles. And, after all, it is to win battles that
the Royal Navy exists.
It was that spirit, that will to conquer, that
despising of odds, which carried Admiral Jervis to
victory at St. Vincent with his fifteen ships against
twenty-seven of Spain which carried Blake and
;

his seamen into the Bay of Teneriffe when even

partly to fail meant certain annihilation. It was
the tradition which bore Admiral Duncan in the
Venerable into the Texel River against heavy odds,
and it was the spirit which bade him cry to his

ship's company before they went into action :

"
I have taken the soundings of the water, and
I know that when my ship sinks my flag will still

It was the same unconquerable optimism which

sustained Admiral Jellicoe throughout his herculean
task of keeping the personnel of the Grand Fleet
in perfect fighting trim throughout the weary months
of watching and waiting in the North Sea.
may not, but our children surely
This generation
willbe brought to realise something of the imperish-
able debt which the Empire and civilisation owe
to Admiral Jellicoe. Is it too much to say that
he created the Grand Fleet ? It was, without a
shadow of doubt, his inspiring and human personality
and leadership that made of the Grand Fleet so
perfect an instrument of war as finally to secure by
itthe greatest victory in the history of the world ;

a victory won without the firing of a single gun or

the loss of a single life.
 TRADITION OF ROYAL NAVY 59
But for the moment I write of another matter.
In a letter to Lady Jellicoe the Admiral paid his
tribute to the manner in which the men under his
command were upholding the Navy tradition through
those winter months of unceasing strain and vigilance.
'
The men," he wrote, " are setting an example
of cheery patience that is splendid The nights . . .

are very long, the sky is very grey, and the decks
are very, very wet. But none of these things affect
the spirit of the men, any more than the cold and
wet trenches and the constant shell-fire affect the
spirits of those splendid soldiers of ours ... It is

good to be a Briton nowadays."

And may make the momentary digression "I
if I
"
would the officers and men of the
like Old Army
to know that it was also in no small measure the
all too scanty news of the supreme gallantry evinced
" "
by the Old Contemptibles in France and Flanders
that helped to inspire the Grand Fleet during those
long watches at sea. The admiration of the Royal
" '

Navy for the Old Contemptibles was, and is

unbounded. *
"
I cannot adequately express the pride with
which the spirit of the Fleet filled me." So wrote
Admiral Jellicoe after the one great fleet action
vouchsafed to the Royal Navy in the war.
And with the words I see the picture of four
seamen wrecked from a destroyer in the middle of
that great fight, clinging to,crouching upon a raft,
while above and around them enormous projectiles
* 1
make the remark from personal experience with audiences
of every section of the Hoynl Navy but 1 know that the various
;

Admirals Commanding will bear out the assertion.

60 THE SEAFARERS
hurtled through the air and mighty concussions rent
the very heavens. And I see those men, each one
of them staggering to his feet as four destroyers in
line ahead swept into action, and yelling himself
hoarse with a cheer to speed his comrades on.
Or I clamber again up the great steel mast of
a battleship at " action stations
"
in the North Sea
as she zigzags a course into the Skager Rak to
tempt the Huns forth to a fight. And emerging
" '

into the top where there should be, one would

think, the tense strain of hands on levers, eyes glued
to telescopes, gun-ranging signals and such like, I
iind instead the gunnery lieutenant-commander (a
famous International footballer) aiding and abetting
a seaman in giving an excellent imitation of George
"
Robey (with mask) in his latest song success. Now
" '

then, chorus please, all

together Shurr-upp."
!

Do you remember the British infantry storming

"
the German trenches to the cry of This way for
"
the early doors ?

Or again I see in imagination the glorious chase

of the German Niirnberg by H.M.S. Kent after the
battle of the Falkland Isles. The Kent, the dear
old lame duck of the British Squadron, with her
23 knots setting out to run down the German ship
with her 24 knots. It was Captain Keats and the
Superb over again.
Now was the day of the engineers and the stokers,
and magnificently did they answer the call. You
may picture the
Niirnberg hull down over the horizon
— just a smudge of smoke—and you can see the men
of the Kent determined to burn everything in the
ship that could burn before she got away from them.
 TRADITION OF ROYAL NAVY 61

For they were out to avenge the death of a consort.

You see the revolution gauges in engine-room and
on the bridge creep steadily up. They say that
all the furniture in the
ship was piled into the
furnaces. Steadily up; and now they are actually
knocking 25 knots Better still, they
out of her.
are sticking to it. But
only one
it'sknot to the good,
and imagine how long the chase must needs be.
"
But the " black squad " and the " greasers are
in it to the death, and they bank up and keep the
cranks going until it would seem that every plate
and rivet will be shaken out of the ship. Then, at
long last, the welcome message from the fire-control
and the Kent's gunners are at work. From then
an hour and a half saw the end and the Monmouth
;

was avenged.
*»*

The spirit that wins battles ! It was that spirit

which won England her first great victory at
for
sea just seven hundred years ago. The victory
won by Hubert de Burgh in the Straits of Dover
in 1217 over a French fleet of double his strength.
"
Indeed, the Navy is very old and very wise."
It was the same spirit which won for Britain
what may chance to have been her last great fleet
action, when Vice-Admiral Beatty engaged an enemy
in advantage of numbers and position, holding on

grimly to enable the Commander-in-Chief to strike

the decisive blow.
For the tradition of the Royal Navy in such
matters is a
very simple one:
Go straight for the enemy and dont give a damn
for the odds.
62 THE SEAFARERS
Andwhile the spirit which translates that tradi-
tion into action may, and most frequently does, win
its battle there comes, perhaps, a day when the

glory of defeat a greater thing than the glory of

is

victory. Save, always for the loss of noble lives

that may never be replaced. Who will say that
Sir Richard Grcnville and his men of Devon were
not greater in their defeat than in their possible
victory ? The tradition of the Revenge is one of
the most inspiring in our Island history.
There was a little ship of ours, and the name of
her was the Mary Rose. And Mary Rose is a name
which very famous in the annals of the Royal
is

Navy. You
will find her fighting in wellnigh every
fleet action back to the campaign of the Spanish
Armada and beyond.*
Now this Mary Rose, the last of her name, was
one of our best and fastest destroyers, not long in
commission. And one day of October, 1917, she
steamed out from Norwegian waters in escort of a
convoy of a dozen odd merchantmen bound for the
" "
West. And the name of her skipper was Charles
Fox, Lieutenant-Commander.
Twelve hours out she was, steaming ahead of the
convoy, when far astern, flashes of gun-fire were
sighted. Swinging round on her course the Mary
Rose steamed back to investigate, thinking that a
submarine was attacking.
The morning was misty, and, as she sped back,
suddenly there loomed up to her, at no more than
*
Ino apology for re-telling this story, for it is one which
offer
and retold through the generations until Britain is no
will be told
more a nation. Aye, and then will they remember it of us.
 TRADITION OF ROYAL NAVY 63
four miles distance, the phantasmal forms of three
large ships. Immediately the Mary Rose challenged.
No reply. Yes ;
a gun flash, and a shell falling
astern of her.
Then the Mary Rose saw clearly. It was not
an enemy submarine but three of Germany's latest
—
and finest light cruisers sent, as we know now, to
attack this particular convoy.
" "
Fox rang down for full
and, opening speed
fire with every gun he could bring to bear, drove
his ship straight for the enemy.
—
Three and a half miles the range closed. Three
miles And the cruisers opened with their quick-
!

firers. Over and short burst the shells, straddling

her and the Mary Rose held on.
;

Two and a half miles Two miles And now

! !

the menMary Rose began to go down, wounded

of the
or dead, beneath the bursting shrapnel. But ever
the Commander stood to it, and ever the Mary Rose
drove forward through the storm.
One and a half miles long since point- —
blank range for cruiser gunnery but still — . . .

On On
! One mile, one little mile
! And the !

coxswain at a sharp order wrenches the helm

hard-a-port. The starboard torpedo-tubes come
to bear as the Mary Rose heels over, shipping a

great sea which sweeps her deck. (Death is certain,

but perhaps ten seconds respite for one sure blow
at the enemy.)
Over to the helm swings the tiny ship, and —
crash — a salvoof shell hmsts fair amidships, wrecks
the engine-room, and leaves the Mary Rose mortally
wounded, helpless, motionless on the water.
64 THE SEAFARERS
That one salvo carried overboard or put out of
action every gun aboard of her save the little gun
aft, killed or wounded every man save the Com-
mander, the first and sub-lieutenants, half the gun
detachment aft, and a couple of men by a torpedo
tube.
And through the thunderous din of the bursting
and the choking fumes of the gas and burning
shells

wreckage there came to the little detachment aft

the joyous cry of their Commander :

'

God my heart, "

bless Get her going lads !

—
again we're not done yet !

And they got the little gun going again. And

the two men by the torpedo tube pulled the lanyard
to lire the last torpedo at a cruiser as she passed,
and were struck down instantly at their post. And
the Commander dived into his cabin to sink over-
—
board the ship's papers which is the last thing the
"owner" must do before his ship goes down. And
the first lieutenant called the gunner to him as —
Richard Grenville had done, how many years ago
—
and cried :

" "
Sink the ship, master gunner !

But it didn't come to that. A last salvo took

her hard within the water-line, and the little Mary
Rose heeled over and sank with her White Ensign
flying to the last, and the echo of those — immortal
—words ringing down the world :

"
God bless my heart, lads ! We're not done
"
yet !

Such
is the tradition of the Royal Navy. Not
merely that a man's service shall end only with his
 TRADITION OF ROYAL NAVY 65

death, but, if the Call should come, that the manner

of his death shall be equally worthy. That there
should be gallantry in the passing, thoughtfulness
for others, humanity, loving-kindness.
The passing of Nelson, when he called for a
handkerchief to cover his face and the glittering
"
stars upon his breast in order that he might be
conveyed to the cock-pit at this crisis unnoticed by
the crew." * The passing of Captain Loxley, when
he went down in the Formidable standing calmly
on the bridge with his little terrier by his side, and
" "
calling to his men : Be British, lads ! The
passing of Thomas Crisp, V.C., master of the fishing
smack Nelson
" —
It's all right, boy. Do your best
"
with the gun and then, after telling of his own
!

death by carrier-pigeon message, going down with

his ship. The passing of Jack Cornwell, ship's boy,
as he stood by his gun calmly awaiting orders.
These are of the Tradition.
The legacy which great-hearted men and boys such
as these have bequeathed to us is the most precious
of all our glorious heritage. This is the Sea Tradition,
sublime in its unselfishness, which England has
bequeathed to the world. And that I think
is our

greatest pride. That a man may serve the cause

of humanity by doing his duty simply and quietly,
that lies
seeking no reward save only the reward
a great thing.
in theperformance of it— that is
But that scores of thousands of a nation, one common
at
Compare the death of Captain E. K. Bradbury, R.H.A.,
*

Xiry, when his last words were a request to be carried away quickly
that his men might not witness his agony and be unnerved.
—
"Retnal from Mons," page 216.
F
66 THE SEAFARERS
stock, should work to the same end, should be con-
tent so to work and to pass away unnoticed and
—
unnamed save by a few faithful hearts that, —
surely, most wonderful of all.
is

And you would seek in the life and death of

if

one single seaman of ours (excepting Nelson) the

meaning of the Tradition of the Royal Navy you
will find it set forth day by day in the nobility of

purpose, the skill in achievement, the unfailing

devotion of one of Nelson's own Admirals, Colling-
wood.
Upon the cenotaph erected to his memory within
his native city, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, is that tra-
dition summed up in the words which tell of Colling-
wood's passing :

HE HELD THE COMMAND OF THE MEDITERRANEAN

FOR NEARLY FIVE YEARS,
DURING WHICH HE NEVER QUITTED HIS VESSEL FOR A SINGLE DAY
DISPLAYING UNRIVALLED PROFESSIONAL SKILL
AND CONDUCTING MANY DIFFICULT AND IMPORTANT NEGOCIATIONS
WITH GREAT POLITICAL SAGACITY AND ADDRESS.
AT LENGTH ON THE DECLINE OF HIS HEALTH
HE BECAME ANXIOUS TO REVISIT HIS NATIVE LAND
BUT HAVING LEARNED THAT HIS SERVICES COULD ILL BE SPARED
IN THOSE CRITICAL TIMES,
HE REPLIED THAT HIS LIFE WAS HIS COUNTRY'S
AND PERSEVERED IN THE DISCHARGE OF HIS ARDUOUS DUTIES
TILL WORN OUT WITH FATIGUE HE EXPIRED AT SEA,
ON THE 7TH OF MARCH 1810, IN THE 6 1ST YEAR OF HIS AGE.

Oh You
—England, my England
! should be very
proud and very humble. Proud indeed that such
breed of men are Yours to do You service ; humble,
stricken to the heart with shame that You give to
them in return, even to-day, such poverty of re-

compense and recognition.

THE SEA AFFAIR
 Ill

THE SEA AFFAIR

To-day a rude brief recitative,
Of ships sailing the seas, each with its special flag or ship-signal,
—
Of unnamed heroes in the ships of waves spreading and spreading
far as the eye can reach,
Of dashing spray, and the winds piping and blowing.
—Walt Whitman.

The British Navy has once again performed its

traditional The Island Kingdom has been

task.

spared the horror of invasion, and her Sea Power

has been extended upon the Continents of the world
by the landing of her armies the freedom of the
;

"
seas has been maintained for such as pass upon
"
their lawful occasions and Civilisation has been
;

saved.
It is well to clear the ground at the outset and
"
take the negative side of the picture. If it had
not been for the British Navy." And we may put
it in outline and very briefly, with but little effort
of the imagination.
First then, the original Expeditionary Force could
not have sailed, and, as we can see now, Paris would
have and France would have been beaten to
fallen
her knees within amonth or so. The Channel ports
would have been occupied from the Scheldt to
Brest, and then, within a little while, would have
come the turn of Great Britain.
69
70 THE SEAFARERS
From Portsmouth to the Humber I see the
streams of refugees pouring inland from the coast
towns and villages. I picture the sack of Ipswich ;

English women ravished upon trestles set out in

the market-place,* and then driven out slashed and
mutilated into the fields. Magdalen Tower, Oxford,
comes crashing down through the chapel and over
Addison's Walk the Bodleian Library with its
;

precious store soars to the sky in a sheet of flame

while drunken German soldiery dance down the
Broad. Winchester Cathedral, with the West Front
battered out, serves as a stable for cavalry horses.
The tide of invasion sweeps across from the east,
and old men, women, children, Jews and aliens,
pour out of Leeds, Sheffield, and Nottingham, to-
wards the mountain fastnesses of Wales. Plunder
and rapine through the great industrial districts ;

men and boys driven at the bayonet point to dig

trenches, with a merciful stab at the end of the day
when they drop down exhausted. A carnival of
tipsy revellers in St. Paul's Cathedral Canterbury ;

an orgy of drunken lust and barbarism in and out

the ruins. German officers parading the streets in
copes and vestments, slashing with their swords at

every living thing. Little children slung up by

—
hooks in the shop-windows but why continue ?
All these things, and hundreds of others incom-
parably more horrible, would they have done
—had
it not been for the British
Navy.

And afterwards ? After a peace dictated in

London —no such thing as a " conference." Our
* Vide
appendix to the Bryce Report, p. 19.
 THE SEA AFFAIR 71
people in their hundreds of thousands herded into
"
actual slavery, with eighteen hours a day forced
labour under the lash or at the point of the bayonet,
with a dog's death and a dog's burial at the end
of it." *

These are the things which many members of

the British Parliament (heaven forgive them !)
strove for, hoped for during four long years of a
world's agony. And they would have had their
—
way had it not been for the British Navy.
Then in due course would have come the turn
"
of those idiotic Yankees." | New York, Boston,
Richmond and Philadelphia would have learned
what Germany really thought of the United States
and the Monroe Doctrine. America would have
sprung to arms too late to save even herself had
—
it not been for the British Navy.

Every ship that sailed the seas would have sailed

beneath the German flag or at the sufferance of
Germany. India, the magnificent loyalty of native
India— well, Germany prefers her own methods of
"
administration with niggers." Remember the
Hereros and other native races of Africa From !

Hamburg and Riga to Aden ; from Cairo to Mozam-

bique from Sierra Leone to Somaliland
; (look at
your atlas, please) the Germans would have marched
" "
as conquerors and imposed their devilish Kultur
— again (forgive the repetition) had it not been for
the British Navy.
* "
Mr. Rudyard Kipling's Message to the Nation," February
15, 1 J18.
(

f That insult, more than anything else was, I believe, respon-

sible for bringing America in to the War.
72 THE SEAFARERS
No. I do not exaggerate one iota. Ask M.
Clemenceau and M. Pichon and Marechal Foch ;

ask His Majesty of the Belgians, Admiral Sims and

Admiral Rodman ask M. Venizelos, and His Majesty
;

of Italy, and Field-MarshalHaig ask Hindenburg, ;

Ludendorff and William Hohenzollern, and you shall

have the same answer.

Germany lost the war when Britain entered it.

That is the gist of the matter. For Sea Power decided

the issue, as it has ever done since history was first

made. Had many of our politicians and publicists

remembered this elementary fact in the dark days
of 1917-18 there been exhibited none
need have
of that pessimism which characterised
miserable
their actions. But politicians know nothing of the
reality of Sea Power. The Premier, however, re-
membered.
" '
The Mariners of England And the pay of
!

the Captain of a super-Dreadnought, vested capital

of two million pounds sterling, carrying over 1,100
men, is a trifle over £400 a year. A sub-lieutenant,
R.N., after years of intensive training, receives —
less than a boy-riveter of fourteen on Tyneside.
His Majesty's midshipmen, of whom I shall speak
and whose gallantry and heroism during
hereafter,
the War have been second to none, actually had
themselves (or their parents) to pay for the privi-
"
lege of so serving their country, until a tem-
"
porary dispensation from the Admiralty came
into force.
Of the scandalous yes, — "
scandalous state
" —
of affairs with the lower deck again I shall have
 THE SEA AFFAIR 73

something to say later.* But this I may remark

now. There is nothing, nothing which the officers
and men of the Royal Navy may demand that the
Nation must not give to them. We owe our lives,
our honour, our very existence as a nation to them
and it must be our greatest pride and happiness to
grant any request they may make.
These are the words of Admiral Sims, U.S.N.,
"
to his countrymen If a catastrophe should happen
:

to the British Grand Fleet there is no power on

earth that can save us .The British Grand Fleet
. .

is the foundation-stone of the cause of the whole

of the Allies."
I do not forget the work of the seamen and
ships of the Allies, Japan, France, Italy, and, during
the concluding year, America. But, as our Allies
have been ever anxious to urge, their efforts could
have availed but nothing without the Sea Power of
Britain,
The words of Admiral Sims provide the key
'
to the meaning of sea supremacy. The British
Grand Fleet is the foundation-stone." And Admiral
Sims was but repeating the words of another citizen
of the United States, Admiral A. T. Mahan, uttered

many years ago to tell the world how British sea

supremacy had defeated Napoleon. They have
been quoted a hundred times in the past five years,
but I venture to set them down yet once more for
they sum up as no other words have done the achieve-
ment of the Grand Fleet in this war also.

*
Since these lines were in print an Admiralty Commission has
been appointed to go into the whole question of pay and allowances
In the Royal Navy. So I will leave the matter.
74 THE SEAFARERS
"
They were dull, weary, eventless months, those
months of waiting and watching of the big ships
before the French arsenals. Purposeless they surely
seemed to many, but they saved England. The
world has never seen a more impressive demonstra-
tion of the influence of sea-power upon its history.
Those far-distant, storm-beaten ships upon which
the Grand Army never looked, stood between it and
the domination of the world."
' "
Communications dominate war is a primary

maxim in all campaigns, whether by land or sea.

And the enemy's lines of communication must be cut
at a point the closest possible to his base. Nelson,
with his strategical genius, ventured more than once
to disobey this principle by holding his blockading
fleet at a distance from the base blockaded this ;

in order to tempt the enemy out to fight. But his

ultimate successes were won only after much trouble
and weariness of heart, and probably only a Nelson
"
could have made good."
Thus, when you read of General Allenby's vic-
torious campaign in Palestine, or the capture of
Baghdad, or the conquest of Togoland, it must be
remembered always that British Armies in the
Field were but the extension of British Sea Power,
the spear- head upon the shaft, and that all was
accomplished solely because the British Grand Fleet
in the North Sea made it possible of accomplish-
ment.

How then has the British Navy worked in fulfil-

ment of its traditional task ?
I picture the achievement of the Navy as coming
 THE SEA AFFAIR 75
within four categories. Four headings, four little
words each one of which begins with the letter
"
C." (The pun is intended.) Here they are :
—
CO-OPERATION
COMBAT
CONVOY
COMMUNICATIONS

The division is not official, nor is it arbitrary ;

nor does it matter in what sequence the headings

are taken. Also it will be found that the subject-
matter necessarily overlaps. That is inevitable.
I propose now to suggest a few points under each
heading by way of fixing them in the memory.
 GO-OPERATION
The Sister Services
"
With 30,000 men in transports at the Downs the English can
paralyse 300,000 of my army, and that will reduce us to the rank
of a second-class Power." —
Napoleon.

By "Co-operation" I mean the working together

of the Navy and Army combined in some distinct
and definite
military operation. This, as distin-
guished from, say, the actual transport and escort of
troops by the Navy. I suggest this phase of the
Navy's work for first consideration because it is,
perhaps, the most involved and technical of all the
duties which a Navy is ever called upon to undertake.
As always I would avoid questions of the higher
" "
strategy so that the word technical need cause no
alarm and a desire to skip this particular section.
Now the number of instances in history of ships
and troops acting together, supporting each other,
in a military operation are comparatively few.*
Opportunities for such action are rare. One
of the earliest in our own history was the occasion
of Francis Drake attacking San Domingo in 1586.
Drake had a genius for this kind of land and sea
*
I venture throughout this book constantly to refer to in-
cidents in our earlier Naval history in the hope that the reader
may be stimulated to look back for himself. The more illustrations
which we have at our command, whether from personal experience
or from history, the sounder should be our grip upon the matter in
hand.
76
 GO-OPERATION 77
work combined — warfare, as termed it is
—and the principlesamphibious
which guided him at San Domingo
have actually served as a model ever since.* But
then Drake had the advantage of being a great
seaman and a great soldier too, and the combination
is very unusual.
One of the happiest instances of the British

Navy and Army working together was the attack

on, and capture of Quebec in 1759 by Vice- Admiral
Saunders and General Wolfe.f History has plenty
" '

to say about Wolfe and Gray's Elegy and the

death in action of the General at the moment of
victory, but, as usual, it is silent about the part
played by the Navy. And that part was every
'
bit as important as the work of the Army. The
mastery of the seaman's art," says John Leyland,J
"
which Saunders displayed at that time, a com-
bination of daring caution, skill and command, has
rarely been surpassed."
The campaign in the Crimea is another instance
of the silence of history about the work of the Navy.
And yet the opening of the operations by Navy
and Army combined, in face of almost incredible
difficulties and with an enemy fully alive to all our

movements, was one of the most brilliant and

successful in our military history. § Personally, I
* "
The story is told in Drake, and the Tudor Navy," Julian
Covbett, vol. ii., page 36 et scq.

f" History of the Royal Navy," W. Laird Clowes, vol. iii.,

page 206 el seq.

"
\ The Royal Navy," John Leyland (Cambridge University
Press),page 90. A delightful little volume (in a cheap edition)
which should be in every home in the Empire.
"
§ Vide Some Principles of Maritime Strategy," Julian Corbett,
page 292.
78 THE SEAFARERS
imagine it to have been an operation infinitely more
hazardous than the attack on the Dardanelles in the
late war, and it was conducted, too, with an enemy
" '"
fleet in being of a strength nearly equal to our
own.
Other interesting examples of such combined
operations may be found in the Revolutionary Cam-
paign in Chile, 1891 ;
the Spanish-American War,
1898 the attack on Wei-hai-Wei by the Japanese
;

in 1895 and several of the actions in the Russo-

;

Japanese War of 1904-5.*

A very high degree of skill is necessary, not to
mention a most friendly and unselfish agreement
between the naval and military commanders, to
bring such combined operations to a happy issue.
For Great Britain it is obvious that no military
campaign can ever exist in which the Navy and the
Sea do not play a vital part. (Unless, of course, we
—
come to aerial transport a most likely contingency.)
And nothing in the late war is happier than the close
friendship which existed between the two Services.

To Thomas Atkins the sailorman was one of

those legendary beings of the guardian angel type
of whom he had heard so much but had never seen,
but in whom he could repose implicit trust. To
Jack, denied the privilege of a good scrap, the soldier-
man was a Homeric hero who fought all day up to
his waist in mud, ate and drank nothing but mud
for meals, and killed seven
his Huns with every
lunge of the bayonet.
*
To the would-be student, "Letters on Amphibious Wars,"
Brig.-General G. G. Aston, is warmly recommended.
 GO-OPERATION 79
In all the British Navy to-day there are no
happier and prouder men than that little handful
of petty-officers and A.B.'s who went on a Cook's
tour round the trenches and found themselves
manning machine-guns and rifles to repel a Hun
attack. And when they eventually got back to
H.M.S. Broadside ! Well, the captain has by im-
memorial custom a little bit of the quarter-deck to
take exercise on, but our trench heroes collared the
whole.
Up and down they would parade in a sublime
dignity which I am sure Admiral Beatty could never
approach. And no young ladies of Windsor Town
ever cast more envious and admiring glances upon
khaki-clad warriors than their out-in-the-cold mess-
mates cast upon those lucky men. Signalmen would
peer at them over the bridge awning stokers
;

would poke grimy heads out from odd, hidden

corners even the Captain himself, who is as God
;

to the ship's company,* sat morose in his cabin

and bewailed the day that he hadn't enlisted for
a soldier.
But down below on their mess-deck the heroes
would unbend a little.
"
Well, mates, it was thuswisc." And Able
Seaman Tom Rogers cast an appraising glance at
the intent faces which blocked out every corner.
'
We'd been going a couple o' days and nights afore
we got into port where Haig was don't remember —
—
the name and we was ordered to heave-to almost
the next station — about three cables distance. Now
Haig, what he don't get to know about Fritz isn't
* An Admiral is merely Royalty to the ship's company.
80 THE SEAFARERS
worth knowing. Same as our Admiralty chaps.
And the very night we dropped anchor Haig took
in a signal that Fritz was coming out next day :

Hill 53 they called it."

" "
Where was you, Tom ? inquired Howell,
O.D., meekly.
"
All right, me lad, if you're spinning this
"
yarn
"
A chorus of warm protest, and Stow it,
"
Ginger !

"
The ruffledresumed. Tom
Well, Haig was
in a rare fix 'cos he hadn't got hardly any men down
there, and the line near-by was pretty thin. But
just as he was thinking about it one of the staff
'

chaps went up and said Beg pardon, sir, but the

Navy's here.'
" ' '
'

Navy !
says Haig. Thank God, then, we're
all right Where !
they is it — are ?
'
So they told
'
him how we'd come alongside that night. Good,'
says Haig,
'

signal them to close or wait send ;

— —
"
my barge to pick them up.'
" "
Barge ? queried Howell.
"
Motor car, I mean," answered Tom with a
"
scowl, and Another word from you, my lad So !

they picked us up there was me and —

petty-officer
Simmons and six of us and took us straight down —
to Haig's cabin. He's a gentleman is Haig, take it
from me. And Haig says well, my lads, we always
'

have to come back on the Navy, and I know I can

depend on you to see us through and a lot more
'
—
'
hot-air stuff. And we said aye, sir,' and stood
"
looking like a lot of owls
"
Trust you for that," murmured Howell.
 CO-OPERATION 81
"
That's done it," said the exasperated Tom,
" "
out you go !

Fifteen seconds for refreshment. Then, after

the armistice
"
Well, the long and short of it was they rushed
the lot of us off in the pinnace car, I should say, —
making about 48 knots all the way and pitching !

— a destroyer isn't in it I thought we'd be over

:

the side every minute. Then we fetched up in a

trench—the proper mud up to your
kind, with the
—
armpits and they handed out a machine-gun and
a couple of rifles and bayonets each, and a trolly-
load of ammunition, and told us to carry on the
minute Fritz put his head up. And so we did Gum ! !

it was warm work They came on

! in hundreds
yelling like the devil. And we plugged away for
allwe were worth. And when we'd finished all the
' '

ammunition, come on, boys shouts old Simmons,!

and up the side we went up on deck and let go with

the bayonet. I couldn't shake 'em off the end fast
enough. And after it was all over and there was no
more Huns left they took us back again and served
'
out a dozen tots of rum each. The end of a perfect
"
concluded Tom, with a reminiscent smack
'

day !

of the lips.
" '

And what did Haig say ? asked a stoker

who'd got in somehow.
" "
Well," said Tom modestly, it isn't for me
"
to say, but
So there wc will leave them. And although
General Currie and the Canadians may reasonably
claim some share in that day's work I guess they
don't begrudge the D.C.M.'s and other awards so
G
82 THE SEAFARERS
"
gallantly earned by the Navy in those combined
operations." Perhaps Bill Adams really did win
the Battle of Waterloo. Who shall say?

If that is a suggestion of the spirit in which the

Navy enjoys fighting side by side with their comrades

of the Army, the Army not a whit behind in appre-
is

ciating the chance of a scrap under the White Ensign.

There was a certain Army officer back in England
on leave from the Front. And being a man of
proper enterprise he secured permission to pay a
visit to the Grand Fleet for the usual four days'
spell. Arrived at Scapa he was assigned (as was
usual) to one of the battleships.
He hadn't been on board an hour when the
'
Commander-in-Chief made the signal to raise
steam immediately for 18 knots, and report when
ready." That meant another parade in the
North Sea. Every man on shore was brought on
board his ship, and all turned to their ordinary
"
routine jobs for proceeding as requisite."
'

But," said the Army man, when it was ex-

plained to him, "I'll have to be put ashore."
' "
Sorry," replied the captain, I'm afraid we
can't."
' "
Good the Army,
lord," said you must. I
can't go out with you. I'll be hauled on the mat

for over-staying leave."

'

Sorry," returned the captain, beginning to

think that the Army was getting " cold feet," " but
we can't let you have a boat."
' "
Is there no way of getting me ashore ? asked
the Army in despair.
 CO-OPERATION 83
"
Afraid not."
" "
Not a raft or anything ?
"
No."
" with intense
Thank God!" ejaculated the Army
fervour.
And so that Army officer went to sea on the
battleship, and found himself in for—the Battle of
Jutland. And he hasn't done crowing about it
yet nor will he so long as he lives. Just think
;

of such amazing luck And the Battle of Jutland

!

thrown in.

I believe it is a fact that no more than three

Army Officers had that luck of going to sea with

the brand Fleet.

Now, those two little yarns are not really a

"
digression from this theme of Co-operation."
For they indicate, I think, how very real is the bond
which unites the two Services. Given that tie of
sterling friendship based upon
mutual respect and
admiration all things are possible. Similarly, every-
thing that tends to strengthen that bond, whether
it isinter-Services sport and games, singing competi-
tions of glee and unison songs,* and any such that
are
brings the Services into friendly rivalry, these
worthy of organisation and should receive the heart-
iest support from the Admiralty and Army Council.
Returning then to actual military operations
" "
of an amphibious character, and noting how
infrequent, comparatively speaking, they are in
history and the elements which make for their success,
" *'
* Witness the work of the Naval and Military Musical Union
since 1908.
84 THE SEAFARERS
there will be little surprise at their rarity in the late
war.
Five examples I can recall. And I propose to
do no more than make very brief reference to them,
seeing that the actual details will certainly be pub-
lished elsewhere, if they have not already been given.
First, in point of time, came the most valuable
assistancefrom the Navy off the Belgian Coast in
October, As I have told elsewhere* there
1914.
appeared to the sorely tried remnant of the Belgian
Army, fighting to save the last remaining little
corner of their country, the heartening sight of
British warships steaming close inshore, enfilading
the Germanright with heavy guns. It was a support,
too, for the French marines at Dixmude and so for
the whole of the Allied left flank.
From that date down to the end of the war
those monitors and their attendant craft never failed
in their support, and the last phase was reached
with the announcement to the public, in October,
"
1918, that the Vice- Admiral commanding the
Dover Patrol has landed at Ostend."
Incessantly, by night and day, there was cruising
in those waters a fleet of some eighty ships of every
class, from light cruisers to tiny motor patrol launches.
And the ships were manned not by a personnel of
long-service ratings of the Royal Navy but mainly
by Naval Reserve officers and men, deep-sea fisher-
'

men, and landsmen who had heard the Call of

the sea."
"
These men," wrote Vice- Admiral Bacon, then
"
commanding the Dover patrol, these men under fire
* " The Marne— and
After," page 192.
 CO-OPERATION 85
have exhibited a coolness well worthy of the personnel
of a Service inured by discipline. The results show
how deeply sea adaptability is ingrained in the sea-
faring race of these islands.'" (I cannot resist the
italics.)

Incidentally, Vice-Admiral Bacon has recorded

another fine instance of the splendour of the Royal

Navy's tradition. I quote the actual words, and

one may well guess the inspiration which it must
have had for the entire command.
"It is with regret that, among others, I have to
report the death of Lieutenant-Commander H. T.
Gartside-Tipping, R.N., of the Armed Yacht Sanda,
who was the oldest naval officer afloat. In spite of
his advanced age he rejoined, and with undemon-
strative patriotism served at sea as a Lieutenant-
Commander."
As usual with present day Naval Despatches one
must know how to read between the lines. So that
paragraph may be supplemented by remarking that
Lieutenant- Commander Gartside-Tipping had retired
from the Navy some forty years before the Great
War came that in 1914 he worried the Admiralty
;

day and night until they gave him a job afloat that ;

he served afloat with the Patrol for eighteen months ;

and that, at the last, when the Call came, he died as

—
he would have wished on active service, on the deck
of his own ship, and with his face to the enemy —
With many an old brave captain we shall never know,
Who walked the decks under the colours when the winds did blow,
And made the planks red with his blood before they carried him
below,
Like an old Sailor of the Queen's
And the Queen's old Sailor.
86 THE SEAFARERS
And Lieutenant-Commander Gartside-Tipping was
67 years of age when he died.

Now rather a curious fact of military history

it is

that has been very frequently the threat of a

it
6 "
combined operation rather than the operation
itself which has caused the more damage to an
enemy. It was, in fact, the threat only of such an
amphibious attack that caused Napoleon in 1809
to write the words which I have set at the head
of this section, and to take what one can only term
panic measures to counteract it.
As Sir Julian Corbett has pointed out,* " So long
as British intervention took an amphibious form they
(the great Continental masters of war) knew its dis-
turbing effect upon a European situation was always
out of all proportion to the intrinsic strength em-
ployed or the positive results it could give ... Its
value lay in containing force greater than its own."
If that should be the effect in a European war
it must be even greater when dealing with Eastern

or African races. But in the several examples of

combined operations outside Europe which we must
note there has been not only the threat but a very
real and successful performance. (Save in the
Dardanelles campaign.)
I wonder, for instance, how many people realise
that it was the British Navy which was in great
measure responsible for the capture of Baghdad
in March, 1917.f
* "
Some Principles of Maritime Strategy," Julian Corbett,
page 64.
f Unless we pull ourselves together and insist upon proper
recognition being paid in our history books to the work of the
 GO-OPERATION 87
General Maude, however, did not forget the
work of the Navy when he came to speak of the
magnificent gallantry of the Forces under his com-
mand. Great leader of men as he was, great soldier
and great statesman, he realised thoroughly the
meaning of Sea Power and how to utilise it in perfect
combination with his land forces.
'
For the success achieved," he has written in his
"
summary of operations, the fighting spirit of the
troops has been mainly responsible, but the dash
and gallantry of individuals and units have been
welded into a powerful weapon by that absolute
sympathy which has existed between both Services."
Elsewhere in General Maude's Despatch you
may find some of the details of the Navy's work
and how they rendered " brilliant and substantial
services." But again one must needs read between
the lines, always remembering the fact by way of
solid basis that the campaign Mesopotamia would
in
not have been possible at all had there not been an
undefeated British Grand Fleet in the North Sea.
The work, then, on the river Tigris was carried out
for the most part by that section of the Royal Navy
which is termed The Indian Marine. The officers
are British, other ranks and ratings arc natives.
And rarely, if ever, in military history can there
have been such perfect co-operation between Fleet
and Army. To say that they fought physically side
by side is to tell just the exact truth.
The gunboats themselves formed a part of the

Navy our children will, 1 suppose, remain as ignorant as the present

generation of the incalculable services which the Navy
has rendered
side by side with our Armies in the Great War.
88 THE SEAFARERS
land force, for they actually chased the Turkish
—
cavalry across the desert with their guns. (Who
said that the Horse Marines were a myth ?) They
acted as storeships and as floating forts ; and when
they were not worrying the enemy on the land they
set to against his river craft and recaptured several

gunboats of ours taken during the earlier campaign.

The capture of Baghdad remains one of the
greatest of the great feats of arms in the War.
all
"
It is difficult for those who only England know '

to realise the meaning of such a victory, and the

tremendous moral effect which it had throughout
the Eastern world, from Constantinople to Peking.
British prestige had ebbed very low indeed after
the disasters of the previous years. The failure at
Gallipoli and the fall of Kut had echoed through
the bazaars of Delhi and Calcutta and the market-
places of Soochow and Honan ; and some men
chuckled with delight, while others spoke uneasily
amongst themselves.
But when the tale was told how the British
Raj had still tens of thousands of soldiers to com-
mand ; how his legendary warships had come and
fought down every obstacle of transport and how
;

at last his avenging sword had flashed from end

to end of the great rivers and swept conquering
through the very gates of the holy capital then —
indeed was the star of the Allies once again in the
ascendant and their Cause held to be the righteous
one.

A third example of combined operations is

found in the blockade of the Arabian coast of the
 GO-OPERATION 89
Red Sea in 1916. And here again the capture of
Damascus was largely due to the White Ensign
flying paramount in those waters.
To anyone who knows what the Red Sea is
like in the month of June it is unnecessary to remark

upon the strainof doing anything at all in that

terrible, burning heat. The feat of endurance called
for in serving a ship which lies motionless for days
at a stretch in shallow water off the coast can dimly
be guessed at.
All in a hot and copper sky
The bloody Sun, at noon,
Right up above the mast did stand
No bigger than the Moon.
" "
But the Navy carried on
as usual, co-oper-
ating this time with friendly Arabs. And a rare
job it was, with the overcoming of religious pre-
" "
judices, and of difficulties in spotting accurately
for the guns, owing to sand and mirage.
It is to be hoped that a kinema record was
possible of the closing scene when Jiddah, the port
of Mecca, surrendered to the Allies. You can pic-
ture the landing of the Senior Naval Officer, and
other officers of the R.N.R., pushing their way
through a chattering, gesticulating crowd of Moslems
of every race to the Council Chamber (!), where
they were honourably received with an Address of
Welcome, and sherbet in gilded mugs.
By the way, it would seem that Physical Geo-
graphy is a much neglected science in at least one
department of the War Office, for they actually
sent out to Egypt a shipload of sand for the filling
of sandbags in the trenches. And the cargo was
90 THE SEAFARERS
unloaded too. There is, however, no confirmation
of the report that the Board of Admiralty sent six
tanks of sea-water to the Fleet at Gallipoli for dis-
tillation purposes.

The operations of Navy and Army in Africa

demand, and should certainly receive, a volume to
themselves. There can be few more fascinating
stories. And what a splendid " adventure book
'

for boys it would make. Now, Mr. John Buchan,

will you tell it for us ?

Tell us how two little motor-launches fought

a great ten-minutes' Lake Tanganyika
fight on
and beat and captured an enemy gunboat. Tell
us how they blocked a river with a collier ship and
marooned the German Konigsberg, sinking the collier
across the fairway under a hail of machine-gun bullets ;
and how they pounded the German to pieces, hidden
as she was in the middle of a jungle. And the siege
of Garua, far away in the heart of the Cameroons,
how they carried a great naval gun to the attack, six
hundred odd miles of river transport. Of the coast
fighting of H.M.S. Dwarf and Cumberland, and the
spies, and the clockwork infernal machines. Yes,
please, Mr. Buchan !

Last of my examples, and most important of

all, is the attack on the Dardanelles. I have no
"
intention of going into the details of that Immortal
Gamble," as a naval friend of mine has most aptly
calledit, and only refer to it by way of a reminder

under this heading of the Navy's work. The rights

and wrongs of it, questions of strategy and tactics,
 CO-OPERATION 91
its effect upon the Western Front, and sundry
other points, have been fully discussed, and will,
I suppose, continue to be discussed for many years
to come.*
The Navy did all that was humanly possible,
and more. The strategy was unsound. The ships,
for instance, operated against the forts for a whole
month before the land forces were set to work.
But when the armies were set to land, remember
"
that every soldier was carried ashore on the back
of a sailor." So also at the eventual evacuation was
"
every soldier carried back inboard on the back
of a sailor." And, incidentally, that evacuation
was carried out without the loss of a single life.
That is one way the Navy has of doing its job.
One thing, however, despite all else, remains an
eternal certainty : the amazing, unsurpassable gal-
lantry and heroism of the men who fought there.
And of those who fought there are none of
all

whom the country should be more proud than the

midshipmen Royal Navy. Youngsters of thir-
of the
and sixteen years of age, most
teen, fourteen, fifteen,
of them, many went straight from Dartmouth to
the Dardanelles on active service. They were fight-
ing and dying for England at an age when, nor-
mally, they should have been just entering a public
school.
If we take such pride in the gallant service and
death of a Gartside-Tipping, what can we say of
*
For an admirable precis of the arguments, pro and con ;
of
precedents and lessons from history ; and for the story of the
operations I know nothing better than John Buchan's masterly
"
History of the War." The story of the Dardanelles begins in
vol. vi.
92 THE SEAFARERS
the manner in which those boys upheld the tradition
of their Service ?
Recall, if you will, all that you have heard or
read of the Hell in which our men landed at Beach Y
and Beach V look again at the pictures of it in
;

the Press, close your eyes and give your imagination

full rein, and then remember that through that
awful storm of bursting shell our lads were put
ashore in boats which were under the command
of midshipmen. And so, too, were the wounded
and dying carried back inboard under the tender
charge of those same midshipmen.
A mother of one of them has recorded a conversa-
tion which she had some time afterwards with her
son. I venture to reproduce her own words, to
show the spirit in which those incredible deeds
of

gallantry were performed.*

" " "
One day (she says) he was on duty
from ten in the morning until half-past one at
night.
" ' '

What did you do for food ? I asked, perhaps

foolishly.
" '

Oh, they threw me down a lump of cheese

and a ship's biscuit, somewhere about midday,
when I happened to be alongside.'
" '
And was you had in all those hours ?
that all

Surely they might have seen you had at least some-

'

thing to eat !

' ' '

Eat ! he exclaimed scornfully, and then,
'

very patiently Don't you see, Mother, it was a

:

question of men's lives ? Some were bleeding to

* " "
Reproduced from From Dartmouth to the Dardanelles
(W. Heinemann).
 CO-OPERATION 93
death ; every second counted. How could we think
' "
of eating ?

have no words in which to write of their hero-

I
ism. It is something which can never be told.
We may speak of it only with awe and reverence.
But this I would say about those gallant young
officers.
I have lived with them, I have been in action
with them, I have seen them at work and at play,
we have poured whiskies-and-sodas together down
the gun-room piano to buck it up, we have
shouted choruses together, and I have talked to
them sometimes (Heaven forgive me !) like a " Dutch
uncle," and —here is the verdict :

You may
search the world through and through,
but nowhere will you find lads of stouter courage,
more merry of heart, of more perfect and gentle
manners, of finer sportsmanship, of truer comrade-
ship, than His Majesty's midshipmen. God bless
'em !

And, for the Lord's sake, don't call them

"
middies."
 COMBAT
The Nelson Tradition
" And should the enemy close I have no fears as to the result." —
Nelson.
( The Trafalgar Memorandum.)

Since days when England first created a

the
fighting Navy, her seamen have been guided by
"
the maxim that the first function of the British
fleet is to seek out and destroy that of the enemy."
It is maxim which is typical of the
a Race.
Thus, when the Great War came, our people
with similar instinct came to expect a kind of glorified
fleet action once a week until every ship of the Ger-
man Navy was lying at the bottom of the ocean.
They knew that Britain was by far the stronger at
sea, but as the days lengthened into weeks and
"
the weeks into months, and still there was nothing
doing," save losses of our own ships, folk became
anxious, then irritable, and finally began to demand
with no uncertain voice to know why they had
paid all that money for a Navy which didn't do
any work.
The man who put that maxim into words was
storing up trouble. Public opinion is a big thing,
and when it is unenlightened it is apt to create a
deal of mischief. Fortunately, the heart of our
people was sound, and they stuck it out. But if
there had been real trouble and Mr. and Mrs. John
94
 COMBAT 95
Citizen had demanded immediate action and some
big, showy offensive on the part of the Navy, the
Authorities and Admiralty would have had no one
to blame but themselves. If they will keep the
public in blinkers, they deserve all they get.
It's an old story. Edward III. faced it six hun-
dred years ago. He tried to get supplies for his
fleet and
couldn't, because the people, or the Liberal
and Little Navy Party of those days, didn't
understand what the Navy was doing, and so didn't
see whythey should pay up. And history has re-
peated a score of times since that date
itself ;

always with the same pernicious results.

The fact is that, despite our inborn instinct for
the sea and sea-warfare, there are one or two ele-
mentary principles which must be grasped before
we can rightly understand the duties of the British,
and Royal Navy and how they are performed.
Land warfare is comparatively simple and
wellnigh
everyone can understand the general ideas of it.
Not so with the Fleet. And that is where illustra-
tions from history are so valuable.
'
That is all right," I can hear you remark,
"
but we are not reading this for a history book.
Get on with the yarns about our men to-day."
I agree. But it is only because I would have
everyone understand better these little sea-pictures
of the Great War, and so appreciate more fully the
splendid work of our Mariners, that I venture to
recall the past. A man may enjoy up to a point
a performance of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony,
or Elgar's Violin Concerto played by a master,
but his enjoyment and appreciation are increased
96 THE SEAFARERS
a hundredfold he knows something about harmony
if

and orchestration, musical form and technique —

knows, in short, how to listen to music.

The main between land and sea war-

difference
fare lies in this. On
given reasonable and
land,
obvious conditions, an army can always attack, or
rather can come in contact with an enemy. If the

enemy refuses you can follow him up and worry at

him.
On sea if the enemy fleet refuses to fight and retires
into his harbour behind forts or natural protection
you cannot get at him. If he won't fight you cannot
force him to. You may possibly tempt him out
by some trick or you may. for instance, worry
;

his commerce to such an extent that he will feel

compelled to come out to protect it. But that

is all.

Certainly there have been exceptions. Hawke

and Quiberon Bay was one. Drake and Essex burn-
"
ing the Spanish ships in Cadiz. Famous cutting-
"
out expeditions like that of recapture of the
the Hermione from a Spanish harbour by Captain
Hamilton in 1799. And many another. But they
all serve but to emphasise the real principle that

sea- warfare is very limited in its extent.

On the other hand one may recall Nelson outside
Toulon two weary years trying to get the French
for
Fleet to come out and fight. Or again, off Boulogne
and Flushing when Napoleon was massing his army
of invasion against England. No one, needless to
remark, was more anxious to get at the enemy ships
'
than was Nelson, but, as he said about it, we
 COMBAT 97
cannot do impossibilities, and I am as little used to
find out the impossible as most folks."
In the Russo-Japanese War in wellnigh every
respect the Japanese were the superior of the Russians
and most certainly in sea-power. But try as they
might they could not get at and destroy the Russian
ships lying snug within Port Arthur.
And here one may cite another sound principle
of sea-warfare —too little realised —that ships are more
or less of no use against land-forts, unless backed
up by a land army. It isn't their job. The bitter
experience of the first months at the Dardanelles
and the subsequent result is sufficient illustration.
" ' " '

Yet
:

offence rather than defence is the

inspiration of the British Fleet. It has always been

so. When Edward III. won the Battle of Sluys
(1340) stern offence in the Narrow Seas was our naval
policy. But the people even in those days clamoured
to have the fighting -ships near our own coasts because
they constantly dreaded an invasion. (I seem to
remember a somewhat similar agitation when Scar-
borough and Hartlepool were bombarded by a few
" "
tip and run German ships. Also when London
was first bombed from the air.) But the Navy is
"
wise. It just carries on."
If a thing is humanly possible the British Navy
will do it. And only those who have lived with
the seamen of th< Grand Fleet can realise how they
fretted through the weary watching and waiting
of 1914-1918, longing as men have never longed
before for the chance which was denied them. Even
at the very last, when they saw with incredulous
gaze the German ships steaming to their miserable
H
98 THE SEAFARERS
end, they hoped against hope that someone would
a gun by accident and let them get to work.
fire off

But the enemy passed to their anchorage and all

that the British seamen could do was to spit over
the side in boundless contempt.
" "
Attack is the very breath of their being.
And never was there a more preposterous notion
than the one that the Grand Fleet sat inside Scapa
Flow for year after year, waiting for the Huns to
come out, and growing a nice crop of barnacles in
the process. That is what the German and our own
enemy press tried to make the Public believe ; and
what a vast number of our people did believe. I have
encountered this firmly-rooted idea in every part of
the country, right down to the moment of writing.

Down Harwich there lay the Striking Force

at
of the Royal Navy. The first ships which would come
into action. It was composed of half-a-dozen light
cruisers ; destroyers (nominally about fifty ,
but the
Dover Patrol would keep on borrowing) some ;

submarines and the usual attendant aircraft. The

force was under the command of a man whose name
was unknown to 999 of 1,000 in this country until
the episode of the surrender of the German sub-
marines brought him prominently before the public.
Reginald Yorke Tyrwhitt is his name, Rear-
—
Admiral. And well, as the Navy is not my Service
I am going to risk displeasure and say it. I think
of Admiral Tyrwhitt as one of the finest fighting
seamen Britain has ever produced. The Francis
Drake of the Navy to-day.
One of his captains told me that since August.
 /

Photo : Tunn 6 s
(*.».

REAR- ADMIRAL SIR REGINALD TYRVVHITT

 COMBAT 99
'14, Admiral Tyrwhitt had been blown up in, or
shelled out of six different flagships. That shows
the kind of man he is. It is, too, a pleasing com-
"
ment on the " barnacle idea.
You may picture him any morning during the
War steaming out to sea (for the Force was ready day
and night for instant action), sometimes his one
little cruiser, sometimes with her consorts. Any
day over towards Heligoland and the enemy coast.
And as he steams out you may see the signal made
"
Good-bye, boys see you later."
;
Over to the
minefields of Heligoland, for a round of golf before
lunch. At least I honestly believe that the Admiral
thought of it like that.
Sometimes he would be in luck and there would
be a healthy little scrap. And H.M.S. (whichever
of the six it might be) would steam back to port
with a bit of a limp and a few holes in her funnels,
and a score, maybe, of disconsolate Fritzes on board
trying to wring the North Sea out of their clothes.
One day the Admiral was just bringing his four
light cruisers back into port after twenty-four hours
"
of drawing blank." A sea-plane dipped to him
and signalled that she had just sighted fourteen
battleships to the northward, steaming across the
North Sea east to west.
A wireless was promptly flashed from the flag-
ship to the Admiralty :

t(
From Commanding Harwich Force, to Ad-
miralty, London.
14 battleships reported, latitude so and
so, longitude so and so, steaming due
W. Am going north to investigate."
ioo THE SEAFARERS
And off the four little cruisers went as hard as
they could pelt.
Now it chanced that the Grand Fleet was also
out that day on one of its regular parades down
the North Sea. The fourteen battleships were
our own.
And Grand Fleet operators took in that
the
message which had been flashed to the Admiralty.
And the operators sent the message along to the
various captains of His Majesty's ships. The captains
summoned the commanders and chuckled mightily
over the decoding of it. The commander took
" " " '

Guns aside and whispered the secret. Guns

" '

burst into the ward-room with They're out !

(no need to specify who). The doctor-man collared

" " "
a passing snotty," and the snotty told the
master-at-arms— and in two minutes it was all over
the ship.
For another ten minutes there was eager sus-
pense in the batteries, and then the hoax was
—
out. And when the sailormen heard how Admiral
Tyrwhitt with his four little light cruisers was on
" "
his way to investigate the fourteen battleships
there went up to heaven one mighty shout of
Homeric laughter that the very ships rolled in
sympathy.
But between you and me, and quite in confidence,
I should not be surprised to learn that there was in
the eyes of some on board a little suspicious moisture
at the thought of the Admiral's daring. Just a
littletouch of pride in the sea tradition which sent
him upon his quest in face of such hopeless odds.
For the battleships could have blown the cruisers
 COMBAT 101

out of the water before ever the cruiser look-outs

might have sighted them.*
And yet it was all in the day's work. Just a
trifling extension of the regular routine of the striking-
force. But such is Admiral Tyrwhitt. And with
a commander like that you may guess how his officers
and men backed him up. Heligoland or Hell were
all one if Admiral Tyrwhitt' s flag led the
way.

But I would
straighten out if I may that
' "
barnacleinaction idea. And to give some idea of
one side of the Grand Fleet's work of " offence,"
at a time when it was supposed to be lying in Scapa
Flow, and when the German ships were supposed
to be hunting for it, here is a little sketch of a two
days' operation of which I can speak once again as
an " eyewitness." It is merely typical of a score
more similar parades.
was on a day early in November, 1917, that
It
the Admiralty instructions reached the Commander-
in-Chief at Scapa. There followed the usual con-
ference of captains, and at 5 o'clock p.m. two squad-
rons of battleships (nine ships) steamed majestically
out of the harbour. -f A squadron of battle-cruisers
had also gone out, but that was not known until later,
when the Fleet was at sea. Also the Striking Force
had a word or two to say as you shall hear. The
'

general idea," as communicated to the captains

by the Commander-in-Chief, was something like
*
But see also post, page 143.
f I would sketch fuller details and an impressionist picture of
the sailing of the Grand Fleet, but this 1ms already been done, and
most vividly, hy two other writers of the sea " "
: Bartimeus and
liennet Copplestone.
102 THE SEAFARERS
this. It should be noted how very precise is the
programme as to times and positions :

"
(1.) We have recently laid a new minefield
at Y round about the Horn Reefs in order to
catch ships coming out by Sylt Island. Several
enemy
submarines have been caught there in consequence,
so now they come out round the north of Denmark.
"
At 6.0 a.m., November 2, a Light Cruiser
(2.)

Squadron and destroyer flotillas will rendezvous at

A and will steam on triangular courses (dotted
lineson plan) until 7.45 a.m. They will destroy a
German submarine decoy-ship lying at F, and at
8.30 a.m. they will attack and destroy a flotilla of
enemy patrol craft and an attending auxiliary cruiser
which will come out from the Sound bound for the
North Sea.
"
(3.) At 6.30 a.m. the Battle Cruiser
Squadron
—
(four ships) the Lion, the Tiger, the Princess Royal,
and another — have reached B, to the north of
will
Jutland Bank. They will remain cruising in support
of the light forces in the Kattegat until 4.0 p.m.
"
(4.) At 8.0 a.m. the two Battleship Squadrons
—
(nine ships) including the King George V. (flagship),
the Orion, the Monarch, the Thunderer, the Con-
queror
— will have reached C. They will remain
cruising in support of the battle-cruisers until 5.0 p.m.
"
(5.) At N
there are lying four German battle-
ships of the Nassau class. It is hoped that these

may be tempted out to cut off the retirement of

our light forces through the Skager Rak, being
unaware of the presence of our heavy ships.
"
(6.) The remaining German battleships are
in the Baltic, or laid up.
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104 THE SEAFARERS
"
(7.) Our battle-cruisers and battleships will be
back at Scapa at 4.0 p.m. and 5.30 p.m. respectively
on November 3."
Such was the plan of operations lasting just
fifty-two hours. It was carried out to the smallest
detail and all ships were back at their bases exactly
on time. Now we will see how it all befell. What
happened to the decoy-ship (a kind of German
" '

mystery
:

ship) I never heard. But I like to

imagine a couple of our destroyers hailing her in
the darkness and, with no reply, carrying her by
boarding in the good old-fashioned way. For gun-
fire or the explosion of a torpedo would probably

have given the alarm to the other ships.

In the darkest hour before a November dawn

there came narrow strait that
stealing through the
cuts between the North Zealand shore and Sweden
a dim procession of ships. Well in advance of the
line, threshing steadily along, steamed an old ocean-

going tramp. In her wake, huddled together a little,

there followed one, two, three, four ten smallish —
steamers that might have been deep-sea fishing
boats.
An old
tramp ship But come to look at her
!

more closely and there seems something a trifle odd

about her. Her lines are rather more delicate, more
slender than you would expect in, say, a wheat-
" "
carrying ship or a collier. She flies the house
flag of some shipping firm
—
looks as though she
might be a Dane probably is.
;

And yet a neutral should not be carrying a

6-inch —
gun forrard, and there's another one aft.
 COMBAT 105
And, one could swear to that being a machine-gun
of sorts perched up amidships.
A sea mist lies thick and heavy over the water,
blotting out the coast line on either beam.
Out in the Kattegat, a few miles south of the
island of Laso, a British cruiser moves slowly
little

through the water, making perhaps 10 knots. Astern

of her is a second. But you cannot make her out
in the darkness ;
and yet she keeps perfect station
on her leader. A third and a fourth follow. The
captain on the bridge of the leading ship gulps down
a cup of boiling coffee and munches at a biscuit.
To him enters the commander. A brief report :

then —
" "
Anything doing, sir ? asks the commander.
" "
Nothing," answers the skipper. shall We
see just about as much as we're seeing now." And
he points forrard where the slim bows melt into a
grey nothingness.
" "
What exactly are we after ? asks the com-
" "
mander, buttoning his lammy coat more tightly
round his throat.
" "
A mostly," says the skipper.
raider, She's
due out of the Sound about 8.0 this morning, chock-
—
a-block with prize crews a young Emden over again
— and under the usual neutral colours. She carries
three 6-inch, they say."
"
How those Admiralty chaps get the office ' '

"
about it beats me," remarks the commander. It's

mighty smart of our Intelligence to grab the news

"
at all, but how they get it across to our side
A shrug of the shoulders completed the sentence.
'
There are ten armed patrols, too, on the way.
106 THE SEAFARERS
They'll need a bit of mopping up in this fog," says
the skipper.
'

Destroyers' work assuppose," the

usual, I
"
commander grumbles. We never get a look in."
The vague greyness of the air became more
visible as daylight tried to struggle through. The
cruisers churned steadily on. A
dim smudge of
black, another and another, raced suddenly across
the leader's bows.
"
They'll get it in the neck one of these days,"
"
said the commander, and serve 'em right too,
coming across like that. It's young Worthington.
Never looks where he's going."
"
Never did such a thing yourself, I suppose,"
remarked the skipper with a chuckle for the com- ;

" "
mander's skill and daring as owner of a destroyer
had been a pass-word in the Force.
The connecting link of destroyers made south
at 30 knots. Twenty miles or so away more black
smudges flitted restlessly to and fro on ceaseless
"
patrol ; men at action stations," hands on gun-
levers and lanyards, ready to the instant.
On the northern edge of the Jutland Bank reef
four British battle-cruisers patrolled majestically,
screens of more destroyers to south and east of them ;

watching, waiting.
A hundred-and-fifty miles to the westward again,
far out in the North Sea, nine mighty battleships
steamed slowly on a zigzag course the while they
watched with interest and amusement their faithful
destroyers settling accounts with an enemy sub-
marine or two.
Over the Kattegat the woolly vapour swirls in
 COMBAT 107
heavy folds of raw dankness. The last hour of the
waiting creeps slowly by.
She is now The Sound is our innocent,
clear of
lamb-like neutral. The "Marie, of Flensburg," they
call her, but men have known her by another name.

Quietly unsuspecting (who would harm a peace-

loving Dane ?), eagerly hopeful of fat prizes to be
gathered from the Atlantic trade-routes, she follows
her steady course to the north. And behind her
huddle along the ten faithful attendant spirits whom
she will shortly leave behind to deal with the fool-
hardy submarines of the hated Englander when he
madly ventures into the sacred waters of the Father-
land.
The captain of the good ship Marie looks at
his watch. It marks 8.25. Time for the second
breakfast. He turns. One foot off the bridge,
when —
Asharp, barking report, and the whistle of a
shell a few yards in front of the Marie's bows.
A long, lean shape flashes out from the mist
close flush with the water, and a voice hailing,
"
Heave to What ship is that ? "
!

The Marie captain stands stock-still in amaze-

ment.
A
second hail on the other quarter from another
black smudge.
"
Heave to What ship is that ? "
!

Men come running along the Marie's dick.

There is a wild babble of shouts and oaths. Out
from the mist, more faintly now — " Heave to !
'

A second shell crosses the bows.

The captain rasps out a string of guttural oat lis
and commands mingled. Gun crews rush forrard
108 THE SEAFARERS
and aft to uncover the guns. A little ball climbs
up the mast, clings for a moment at the head, and
—
breaks out into the German ensign.
In one mighty burst as though from a single
control six British open fire. Like a
destroyers
drunken man the Marie staggers and reels to the
shock. Before a minute has gone, or ever she can fire
a single gun, a score of shells have burst within her,
and her decks, bridge, and concealed batteries
are riddled through and through by a hail of

machine-gun bullets.
The destroyers race by, circle and return, and
never for an instant does the storm abate. Nor
from the Marie can men see anything of their
assailants save the flashes of their guns and smudges
in the mist.
Within minutes she was blazing fiercely in
five

every quarter. Her guns were swept overboard, or

lay heaps of tangled debris on the deck. From below
men poured up the hatchways and ran shrieking
about, fighting the flames with naked hands.
Swiftly the destroyers close in. Now it is point-
blank range —
and showers of sparks, burning wood,
and scraps of molten metal rain upwards, down,
into the sea, and on to the destroyers' decks as the
shells crash through the Marie's hull, now glowing
fiercely.
A great explosion aft, and men are pouring over
the side, panic-stricken, going headlong into the
sea. The German colours come fluttering and torn
dragged down the mast, and, as she strikes her flag,
the Marie gives one shuddering heave and is gone. —
Less than ten minutes from the opening shot
 COMBAT 109
saw her end. Thirty of her men were killed, thirty-
were saved by the destroyers, and a handful who
had got away on a lifeboat eventually reached the
Danish coast.
The main piece of the work was finished but
there remained the ten armed patrol ships.
At the first alarm these had separated, fleeing
hither and thither like frightened sheep, making
back to The Sound. But more destroyers had closed
that gap and so the hunt began through the mist.
;

"
If ten ships out of eleven were taken I would
never call it well enough done if we were able to get
at the eleventh." So said Nelson once in rebuke
of one of his admirals. And so said the Senior
Officer of the British destroyers that November
morning.
One by one they rounded up those patrol ships.
As they were discovered here and there in the mist
so were they attacked and fought. And as they
were fought so were they as surely destroyed. The
round-up was complete. Not one escaped.
By 9.30 a.m. the light cruisers and destroyers
had concentrated once again and were on the way
homeward without a single casualty. Oh yes, I
remember one man sprained his ankle. Late that
evening German destroyers and sea-planes were
"
reported as hurrying north."
At 4.0 p.m. the Lion and her three consorts turned
about and steamed for home. The faithful destroyers
were culled in from hunting U-boats, for all the
world as you call your dog to heel from nosing for
rats down a stream, and at 5.0 p.m. the King George
V. and her eight consorts took their homeward
no THE SEAFARERS
course. Twenty-four hours' steaming, and they
entered Scapa Flow.
By 5.30 p.m. on November ships were back
3, all
"
again at their bases according to plan."
"
Don't call me till 9.0 to-morrow," said the
captain of the big ship. He had spent the fifty-two
hours on the bridge without a single break.
"
What about a gentle gin and vermouth," said
the commander of the same as he emerged from the
secluded safety of the bowels of the ship.*
Thought you said there were some Hun battle-
'

" " "

ships about," said Pay to Guns." f
"Another dud stunt," groused leading- stoker
"
Chapman, and us sweating blood down there for
nothing."
But what the "snotties" % said about it is not fit

for publication.

The episode calls for little comment, the conduct

of the whole affair speaks for itself. The merest
glance at the map reveals the daring of it all.
"England's frontiers are high-water mark on the
enemy's coasts." And yet it was but of a piece with
the regular routine of the British Navy. That is
the real point to be borne in mind.
Five days out of every seven in the early half
of the War was the Grand Fleet out cruising to
and fro in the North Sea. Patrolling by the enemy
coasts, offering the most tempting baits, hoping and
* The commander of a battleship in action is supposed to
remain in the safest possible place ready to take command in case
the captain becomes a casualty.
t Paymaster and Gunnery-Commander.
X Midshipmen.
 COMBAT in
praying always that the gage of battle would be
picked up. But no. If the enemy won't come out
you cannot make him do so.
"
As Admiral Beatty put it one day. It's like

one man sitting in a coal-hole, and another man

outside with a meat-chopper waiting to smash him
on the head directly he puts it out."
Nor would it be a particularly happy encounter
for any enemy to meet the Grand Fleet out at its

strength. For I wonder how many persons could

guess off-hand the area of sea covered by the Fleet
steaming in cruising formation. Here is an idea :
—
10 Miles
(across)
j\

in ~ tn i
_l h-
- Q. =! °-

Q
O Z
-
8? o

V V
10 Miles —>
(across1

or an area of about 1,000 square miles.

One point, though, about that Kattegat episode

is worth especial notice. How
did our Admiralty
know so precisely the enemy's plans and the where-
abouts of the various ships ?
Frankly, I haven't the faintest notion. I have
questioned a large number of senior officers on the
ii2 THE SEAFARERS
subject, but the reply has always been the same,
"
No idea." Nor was that merely the proper re-
ticence of the naval officer. They really did not
know how our Secret Service garnered its news nor,
most startling of all, how the news was transmitted
from Germany. It was a mystery to all, save the
brilliant officer who was
the head of the Intelligence
Service at the Admiralty.* Some day it is to be
hoped that he will add many more to the fascinating
" "
s Py yarns he has already published.
People talk of the extraordinary efficiency of
the German Secret Service, and
was remarkably
it

efficient, up to a point.
But, having seen a good
deal of both German and British systems I feel
convinced that ours was by far the superior of the
two. And the superiority lay in the fact that the
British Service,having gathered any special in-
formation, brought imagination and power of deduc-
tion to bear upon the facts an intelligent antici-
;

pation of enemy movements. The German Service,

with the usual German passion for detail, carefully
secured and noted the most minute points of in-
formation (e.g., all the blacksmiths' forges and wells,
etc., etc., in the Eastern Counties), and then pigeon-
holed them. The
big things, like the sailing of the
original Expeditionary Force and Admiral Sturdee's
expedition to the Falkland Islands, were completely
missed. And everyone knows how hopelessly the
enemy was at fault in the matter of psychology.

Returning, then, to the policy of offence and

attack it will be noted that I speak almost always
* Rear-Admiral Sir W. R.
Hall, K.C.M.G., R.N.
 COMBAT 113
of the actual operations of squadrons and ships
rather than of the strategy evolved and dictated by
My Lords Commissioners at the Admiralty. I do
not pretend to the least competence in discussing
such a weighty matter as that.
The average regimental officer never fails in
heaping ridicule upon the men and methods of the
War Office as an institution and authority. The
executive naval officer does just the same with the
Admiralty. It seems foolish, but the fact remains, and
it is almost universal. The general idea was summed
up in a remark a certain distinguished Rear- Admiral
made to me in 1917 " Directly an officer goes to
:

the Admiralty he seems at once to become a blither-

ing idiot."
That, of course, is absurd for my informant
;

would have been the last to apply such a term to,

say, Admiral Jellicoe, or Admiral Hall. But I merely
quote to suggest how the executive always ap-
it

pears to regard the administrative.* And great is

the glee when the latter is scored off in any way.
And me
of a rather quaint incident
that reminds
in which a Divisional Head-Quarter Staff figured a
little while back. It has nothing to do with the

Navy so it should not properly be included here.

Anyway, I'll tell itfor my own enjoyment for ;
I am,
or was, only a mere regimental officer myself.
* When Admiral Jellicoe became First Sea Lord he had as

colleagues live other Sea Lords from the Grand Fleet, and a sixth
had also returned from active service. Never was there a Board
of Admiralty in which so much recent sea experience was to be
found, or in which the members were so young in years. I make

this remark in view of the Press and other attacks at the time that
the Hoard was composed mainly of doddering old fossils.
I
ii 4 THE SEAFARERS
One of our smaller but always gallant Allies
desired to honour a certain British division which
had been doing good work on their frontiers. So
they intimated to the General Head-Quarters that
they were conferring a specified number of decora-
tions of the Order of the Yellow Cobra (or whatever
it was) in its several grades. The senior grade for
the General, and so on down to the rank and file.
"
Thank you very much," said General Head-
Quarters. And the Staff proceeded to allot the
decorations according to the prevailing idea of order
of merit, viz., Grades 1, 2, amongst the red-tabbed,
brass-hatted ones grade 3 to the regimental officers
; ;

grade 4 to the N.C.O.s and grade 5 fetched up

;

with a private.
In due course the decorations themselves arrived
from the Allied Government. And then to the
utter consternation of the Staff it was discovered
that Grade 5 was the senior grade of the Order.
So the lucky private received a glorious insignia
blazing with brilliants which carried with it the
privilege of special trains and the turning out of
guards of honour. And the General received the
one which was reserved for station-masters for

shunting engines properly.

After that little digression we will hark back

once again. And it will be as well to begin a new
page.
 Mainly about Jutland Bank
"
Something must be left to chance ; nothing is sure in a Sea
fight beyond all others. Shot will carry away the Masts and Yards
of friends as well as foes .... But in case Signals can neither be
seen nor perfectly understood, no Captain can do very wrong if he
places his Ship alongside that of an Enemy."
—Nelson.
( The Trafalgar Memorandum.)
" "
Seek out and destroy the is an
enemy fleet
admirable maxim be regarded as a moral in-
if it

spiration. But like many another "wise saw" it

is often not only impossible of realisation but also

even inadvisable to put it into practice.

To take one imaginary instance. Suppose one
day during the spring of 1915 a strong destroyer
attack had been made by Germany against the
Grand Fleet in its undefended harbour at Scapa.
That at the same time two squadrons of German
battleships or battle-cruisers had crept up the Nor-
wegian coast and slipped through into the Atlantic
on to the trade routes. What would have been the
position had the Grand Fleet (or what was left of
it) gone pell-mell after the enemy into the Atlantic
to seek and destroy them, and left the East Coast
—
open to invasion the main point of the enemy's
scheme ?

Naturally such a contingency had been fully

provided for on our side; and (here arc several pre-
cedents in our history which might well apply,
"5
n6 THE SEAFARERS
making proper allowances for modern innovations
like wireless, mines and submarines, the need for

coaling bases, etc., and for the British preponderance

of strength over the German. For instance, during
the Napoleonic wars, in 1804, Admiral Cornwallis
gave to his second-in-command an order which well
illustrates the seasoned views of the Naval Command
of those days :
—
"
If the French put to sea without any of your
vessels seeing them, do not follow them, unless you
are absolutely sure of the course they have taken.
If you leave the entrance of the Channel without

protection, the enemy might profit by it, and assist

the invasion which threatens His Majesty's dominions,
the protection of which is your principal object." *
As a matter of fact at that very time Napoleon
had 35,000 men ready for landing in Ireland or
Scotland as soon as the way was clear. Five of his
men-of-war, with some frigates, put out to sea in a
dense fog, to act partly as decoys but, unluckily
for them, the weather suddenly cleared, they were

sighted and promptly chased back into port.

But such a move by Germany as I have sug-

gested might very well have been made in the early
days of the war. And what an unenlightened public
would have said, even had it been no more than
moderately successful, I do not care to contemplate.
If only Germany had taken that maxim to heart and
acted upon it, then I am afraid that we should have
had a very bad time of it for a spell. (For the
"
* I
am indebted for the reference to Sir Julian Gorbett's Prin-
ciples of Maritime Strategy."
 COMBAT 117
moment, you see I am suggesting the other side of
the picture.) In the first volume of this little War
trilogy* I have pointed out how Germany lost her
greatest chance of the campaign in not attacking
by sea in August, 1914 but it is not, I think, gener-
;

ally realised what havoc she could have played at

Scapa Flow had she been so minded.
For Scapa Flow, at least during the first year,
was absolutely undefended. If Rear-Admiral Sir
Reginald Tyrwhitt had been in command of the
German destroyer flotillas Britain would have lost
half her battleships within the first four months.
They tell in the Navy the story how two German
spies, disguised as shepherds, spent some months
in the Orkneys after the outbreak of war to make
plans of the defences of Scapa Flow. After diligent
search they got back to Berlin with the report,
"
But there are no defences."
"
Oho '

said the Wilhelmstrasse Secret Service

!

"
Head-Quarters. They have been getting at you,
have those cursed Englanders. This means a firing-
party for you before breakfast."
So they took those two agents out and shot
them.
The next week the Wilhelmstrasse sent other
two to the Orkneys. And the second two, after
diligent search, returned to Berlin. But these men
were wiser in their generation, remembering what
had befallen their brethren. And they produced
to the gratified gaze of their superior officers a series
of beautifully executed blue prints, drawings and

tracings of wondrous concealed gun emplacements,

* "
The Retreat from Monv," page 29.
n8 THE SEAFARERS
fortifications, harbour booms, and other devices.
' " here
Good boys," said the Wilhelmstrasse,
is an Iron Cross
apiece for you. You have nobly
earned it. The Fatherland is proud of you."
But the first two were right.

Yes, Germany had some astonishing chances at

sea in those early days. Had the enemy Navy ex-
hibited a very small degree of enterprise, an ordinary
amount would be a very
of courage, the story told
different one, and we should most certainly have
lost heavily.* We must needs return to the root
of the matter. It is not the ships, nor the guns,
nor the instruments which count, it is the men who
man and serve them. " If the enemy should close
I have no fears as to the result."

However, Germany, though very strong at sea,

was the weaker power. And as is the almost in-
variable policy of the weaker power she elected to
remain in port and adopt the system of " worrying "
tactics.
And, after the first few months, there were
thousands of Allied merchant ships passing upon
the High Seas not one of Germany's. Thousands
;

of soldiers crossing the ocean daily not one of

;

Germany's. Some seven thousand odd miles of

British coast line open to attack of Germany a
;
—
glance at the map will show. If battle was joined
with the German ships then, as was inevitable, the
action was fought with Germany naming the con-
ditions of time and place. And those conditions,
*
Remember how the cruisers, the Aboukir, Hague, and Cressy )

were sunk within a half-hour by a single enemy submarine.

 COMBAT 119
naturally enough, were wholly to Germany's ad-
vantage on the eastern side of the North Sea, in
;

mine-strewn, shallow waters, close against enemy

harbours.*
But, and this should never be forgotten, the
Royal Navy was content always to accept those
conditions and to fight whenever and wherever the
"
enemy could be brought to fight. Content," did
I say Well, hardly that.
? For the Navy wanted
to secure a final decision. And that was never
possible when Germany called the terms of the fight.
"
Next time," a naval officer said to me in
"
September, 1918, we are going to see that the
Huns fight over on our side. No more rotten finishes
like Jutland for us."
And one recalls several spirited actions fought
under enemy terms. The fight in the Heligoland
Bight and the glory of H.M.S. Arethusa ; the grim
chase of January 24, '15, after the fleeing enemy
and the sinking of the Blucher ; the destruction of
four enemy destroyers by H.M.S. Undaunted, and
three British destroyers on October 17, '14.
But after a while even such trifles as these were
denied the Royal Navy, and after Jutland Bank
all that seemed possible was to watch and wait as

a cat crouches before a mouse-hole.

A great Fleet action has ever been a compara-

tively rare thing all through history. The number
of really decisive Fleet actions you may count on the

fingers of the two hands. Victories, I mean, by

* I
believe it was Francis Drake who once remarked that with
the advantage of lime and place the victory was already half won.
120 THE SEAFARERS
which the political object in view was definitely and
finally won. Even the defeat of the Spanish Armada
was not, in this respect, decisive. And though
Nelson's seamen and ships at Trafalgar were the
victors of Waterloo yet the great land victory, and
the final overthrow of Napoleon, were actually
secured ten years later, by which time France had
another fleet.

The Battle of Jutland Bank, the only Fleet action

of the late war, is now seen to have been far more
decisive and important a victory than was realised
even six months after the event. know nowWe
not only from German sources but from personal
observation what a smashing defeat it was for
Germany. Such a defeat that many of the big
ships were later on actually scrapped to build sub-
marines from the material.
"
Another hour of daylight would have finished
it," said a German naval gunnery officer recently.
"
The way we were utterly crushed from the moment
your battle-fleet came into action took the heart
out of our men. Our final escape was partly due to
skilful handling, but more to the good luck which
had been with us almost from the first." *
"
It took the heart out of our men." The
"
human element " again. There is the secret, and
the most important feature of the battle. The
Germans are not seamen. It is a nation of lands-
men with nothing of the sea instinct and tradition
in them. When Cromwell's soldiers took to the
sea they fought and adventured as to the sea-
* I
am indebted to a report in The Times of January 14th,
1919, for this interesting corroboration.
 COMBAT 121

manner born, for they were of a race of islanders

one and all imbued with the sea instinct.
At the beginning of the Jutland Battle the Ger-
man gunnery was excellent. This is universally
admitted. But when our own guns got to work
upon the enemy ships the German gunnery went all
to pieces. explained this by suggesting that
Many
the German
range-finding and control instruments
were better than ours, but also of a more delicate
character. Thus they were unable to withstand
the prolonged shocks of shell impact.
But the real explanation is given by the officer
just quoted. The moral of the German sailors was
broken.* It was broken in the first and only Fleet
action, and it never recovered. tried to Officers
trick the crews into putting to sea again, but they

always refused. The mutiny of November, 1918,

was the climax.

The surrender of the German battleships and

their imprisonment at Scapa has revealed some
other interesting details about the German ideas of
sea-service. Most comical of all is the fact that the
German ships were not built for living in. The
sailors were accustomed to live in great barracks
on shore. So when they have at last been compelled
to live on board at Scapa their days and nights have
been one long round of wails, curses and grousing.
But what a delicious piece of poetic justice !

* "
Being but human I cannot resist the I told you so." But
readers of this book who have also listened to the Recital will
recall that since July, 191G, I have steadily urged this as the
dominating factor.
122 THE SEAFARERS
As I German ships have been there
write, the
for some weeks only. Our men lived on board
six
in comfort, though rather overcrowded, for four and
a half years. I wonder what the German sailor
would have said had he served in the ships of Nelson's
time.
"
Four year out from home she was, and ne'er a week in port,"
"
as Henry Newbolt sings of The Old Superb."
Also the Germans are compelled to live in the
horrible filth which, apparently, is the normal con-
dition of any of their warships. The British sailor-
man has learned now
that a very ordinary sense of
smell would have served one of our look-out men
quite as usefully as good eyesight. But anyone with
the least experience of German manners and customs
knows how beastly, depraved and disgusting are
their habits.
Also (but this was well known before the war)
the German big ships are built so that they may
bring the heaviest concentration of gun-fire right
astern. In other words,' as George Robey would
'

say, they are designed for running away.

Again, what a comment upon German ideas of
sea-warfare No wonder their moral snapped as it
!

did. Really, one is

compelled to raise one's hat to
William Hohenzollern for having created a Navy at
all under such conditions.

The story of Jutland Bank naturally demands

the best part of a volume to itself, and I shall not
attempt even an outline sketch of it here. There
are, however, one or two points about the action
to which I would invite attention, taking a few
 COMBAT 123
passages from Admiral Jellicoe's official Despatch*
by way of text.
Now, naval Official Despatches in these days
are not easy reading. They strike the layman as
being too technical and therefore he does not read
"
them. They lack the " human touch. The Navy
replies that they are intended solely for My Lords of
the Admiralty, as an official narrative of events.
For the moment, then, we will let the matter pass,|
trying once again to read between the lines.
At the outset please note the opening of the
despatch :

" Grand Fleet, in pursuance of the general

The ships of the
policy of periodical sweeps through the North Sea, had left its
bases on the previous day, in accordance with instructions issued
by me."
Thereis given the lie direct to all who maintain
" "
the barnacle notion of the Grand Fleet's masterly
"
inactivity. The general policy of periodical sweeps
through the North Sea."
When was joined Admiral Beatty ordered
battle

away a sea-plane to observe and report upon the

enemy strength. Here is the passage of the despatch :

" was well under way her first

By 3.8 P.M. a sea-plane . . .
;

reports of the enemy were received about 3.30 p.m. Owing

. . .

to clouds it was necessary to ily very low, and in order to identify

four enemy light cruisers the sea-plane had to fly at a height of
900 feet within 3,000 yards of them, the light cruisers opening fire

* to the London Gazelle, July 6, 1916.

Supplement "
"
t In the Author's Note at the end of the volume I pro-

pose to deal more fully with the question of naval publicity

vis-d-vis the general public. In the meantime, however, I would
invite a perusal of Admiral Collingwood's despatch on the Bailie
of Trafalgar, printed in the appendix, lie, at any rate, was not
ashamed to write with emotion.
i2 4 THE SEAFARERS
on her with every 'gun that would bear. This in no way interfered
with the clarity of their reports, and both Flight-Lieutenant Rut-
land and Assistant-Paymaster Trewin are to be congratulated on
their achievement, which indicates that sea-planes under such
circumstances are of distinct value."

Well, I should say so ! Just imagine the episode.

That little sea- plane with her two men in her flying
at no more than 300 yards above the sea, and within
3,000 yards (no distance for naval guns) of four
enemy warships which opened fire on her with every
"
gun that would bear. But this in no way interfered
with the clearness of their reports." All in the day's
work, you see.
One can only tackle a Naval Despatch properly
by taking it sentence by sentence and concentrating
hard upon the picture suggested ; trying to visualise
the conditions. a difficult job, though.
It is

Then take this little piece of work on the part

of the destroyers :

"
Twelve destroyers (named) having been ordered to attack
the enemy with torpedoes when opportunity offered moved out
simultaneously with a similar movement on the part of the enemy
destroyers. The attack was carried out in the most gallant manner,
and with great determination. Before arriving at a favourable
position to fire torpedoes they intercepted an enemy force con-
sisting of a light cruiser and fifteen destroyers. fierce engage- A
ment resulted at close quarters, with the result that the enemy
were forced to retire on their battle-cruisers, having lost two
destroyers sunk, and having their torpedo attack frustrated.
Our destroyers sustained no loss."

Now, what about that ?needs no great

It
effort to visualise that picture. 12 British de-
stroyers versus 15 German, and a light cruiser
thrown in to make up the weight. And then the
enemy couldn't pull it off. They lost a couple of
destroyers ; still one to the good, + the light cruiser.
 COMBAT 125
But they decided instead to turn tail and get under
shelter where they could lick their sores in momentary
peace. Again I say, what about it ? Do you
not
thrill to the thought that you belong to the same
race as the men of the 9th, 10th, and 13th Flotillas
ofH.M. Destroyers ?
But throughout the battle and throughout the
war has the story been the same with the destroyers.*
" that
They surpassed the very highest expectations
I had formed of them" said Admiral Jellicoe. No
"
higher praise can be given. Should the enemy
close I have no fears as to the result." Never in
his day was the superb faith of Nelson more superbly

justified. And can you not see the figure of Nelson

standing by the side of his successor upon the bridge
of the Iron Duke and ordering the making of the
" "
good old Navy signal, Manoeuvre well executed ?

Twice only in the Despatch is there a break-away

from the cold formalism of an official narrative.
The Third Battle-cruiser Squadron, commanded by
Rear-Admiral the Hon. Horace L. A. Hood, was
ordered to reinforce Admiral Beatty. The latter
officer reported :

"
I ordered them to take station ahead, 'which was carried out

magnificently ; Rear-Admiral Hood bringing his squadron into

action ahead In a most inspiring manner, worthy 01 his great
naval ancestors."!
* " "
Rudyard Kipling's Sea Warfare contains some splendid
yarns about the destroyers at Jutland. They help one admirably
to read between the lines.
t Compare Nelson's remark at Trafalgar as Collingwood's flag-
ship the Royal Sovereign bore down upon the centre of the enemy's
"
line and broke it : Sec how that noble fellow, Collingwood,
"
carries his ship into action 1
126 THE SEAFARERS
There is no need to add to that. But no kinema
picture can ever convey even a vague idea of a
scene which I always think of as the most thrilling
achievement of man one may ever witness a scene;

which brings the tears to the eyes, so tense is it

with emotion. A squadron of battleships taking
station in line ahead. The effect of it at Jutland
under the leadership of that fine seaman can be
dimly imagined from the comment which it evoked
from Admiral Beatty.
One could well take many another passage for
brief comment, but I will pass to the conclusion of
the narrative. And the concluding paragraph is,
I suggest, perhaps the most significant and remark-
able of the entire Despatch. To appreciate its real
significance the reader must try his hardest to picture
something of that mighty sea-fight.
Imagine how Admiral Beatty gave battle to
a force far superior in members how he sustained
;

heavy losses, but hung on like grim death to hold

the enemy fleet until his Commander-in-Chief could
bring the main fleet into action. Imagine Admiral
Jellicoe bringing the Grand Fleet down from the
"
north at top speed, every ship going all out,"
" "
the black squad and engineers below working
as though the devil were behind them (instead of
in front), every ship beating its own record of speed
(and it's a big strain on plates and rivets going at

top notch). Imagine a little of that tremendous

action when the Grand Fleet got to work, getting
some hard knocks but giving back as good as they
received, the weather getting dirtier and the seas
bigger every half-hour. And then, after a day and
 COMBAT 127
a night of such almost incredible effort of battle
and chase, when at last there were no more enemy
ships in sight, Admiral Jellicoe reports :

" course was shaped for our

At 1.15 p.m. (on June 1) . . .

bases which were reached on Friday, 2nd June .. The Fleet

.

fuelled and replenished with ammunition, and at 9.30 p.m. on

2nd June was reported ready for further action."
"
In other words," those ships steamed back home
(a twenty-four hours' journey), refuelled with oil,
coaled ship, refilledall their ammunition bunkers,

got all their and

sick wounded on shore, made
" '

good all their thousand and one minor defects

(as the Navy loves to call them), and they were
ready to begin the whole business, battle and every-
thing, all over again inside of eight hours.
And if that's not efficiency, I'd like to know
what is.
Now, as before, we will take another picture
to hang by the side of that one.
It may be recalled that after the battle the
almighty, all-highest, omniscient, God-given Kaiser
promulgated to an eagerly-waiting world the news
of the glorious victory which had been won by
his all-powerful, invincible High-Seas Fleet. He
told how at last the " nimbus of sea-supremacy '

had departed from the English Fleet (how the Grand

Fleet rocked with delight !), and how but you —
will know the usual kind of nonsense
At the end of the proclamation, however, the
all-highest was constrained to add a little postscript
— just tossed in by way of an afterthought. And
"
the postscript was t<> the effect that for the present
the German Fleet must remain in Kiel Harbour."
128 THE SEAFARERS
Now our old friend Punch had a word or two
to say on the subject, and I cannot do better than
quote him. About ten days after Jutland Punch
came out with a cartoon. And the picture, as I
remember it, showed, on the left, the tops of the
masts and funnels of the German ships peeping
up above the battlements of Kiel. Around the
fortress ran heavy lines of barbed wire, and out-
side the gate stood a typical German sentry with
fixed bayonet.
And down the road on the right there came a
typical Herr Professor and a typical Frau Pro-
fessor, his wife —
with dog and sausage attachment
— and they went up to the German sentry and said
plaintively :

"
But can't we see our victorious High Seas
"
Fleet ?
" " "
No !
snapped the sentry. Nobody can !
'

—Ready again
British Fleet in eight hours.
German Fleet—Not ready in two and a half years.

And here is a little comment from a German

paper, the Tdgliche Rundschau, of December 24, 1918,
which, with exquisite artlessness, provides the finish-
ing touch. The commander of a surrendered German
destroyer experiences at Scapa Flow
tells his :

" "
An
English battleship," he writes, lies not

far from us. We

see the English sailors on board

parading from 9 to 12. We did not do that even in

Our men are astonished.' *
'

times of deepest peace.

No wonder Admiral Beatty spoke with such
scathing contempt of the German Navy, so voicing
* The not in the original.
italics are, of course,
 COMBAT 129
the opinion of every officer and man under his
command.*
Last of all comes the tribute of appreciation
and praise which the Commander-in-Chief paid to
the officers and men under his command that —
"
band of brothers." I will not reproduce it here,
save for two sentences, but read it, I beg, for your-
self. For a copy of the Despatch should occupy
an honoured place in every home of the Empire.
Here are just two or three lines to serve once again
for a couple of pictures :

"
Officers and men were cool and determined, with a cheeriness
that would have carried them through anything. The heroism
of the wounded was the admiration of all. 1 cannot
adequately
express the pride with which the spirit of the Fleet filled me."
»
"
The heroism of the wounded." How I wish
I could sketch anything of a picture of the scene
in the sick-bay or the distributing stations below
deck of a battleship in a modern naval action.
Far toolittle is said of the splendid work performed

by the Naval Medical Service afloat and ashore.

Who of the general public have ever even heard
the names of Sir James Porter, Arthur May,
Sir
W. Hewitt,
Fleet-Surgeon D. Fleet-Surgeon R. C.
Munday men to —
whom the Senior Service and
the nation owe a very deep debt of gratitude ?
Imagine, then, if you can, a distributing station
on board amid the reek and roar of battle. The
forrard station has been broken in by a shell and
all the work is diverted to the all station already
overburdened. A floating fortress of steel which
shivers and rocks under the incessanl hail of shell —
•The Admiral's speech is reproduced in the Appendix.
J
i3o THE SEAFARERS
some that pour down from the heavens, others that
tear great rents through the sides ofgun turrets
or hull. The air-pressure smashes down great
doors and bulkheads, and bulges inwards or out-
wards massive steel plates as though they were
cardboard. Dense clouds of smoke and poisonous
gas-fumes roll down
the hatchways, choking, suffo-
eating. The horror of darkness where the electric-
light cables are cut ; but the stifling glow of molten
metal where the steel burns. The water pouring
in through holes in the ship's side —
and through
it all the ship's surgeons do their work.

Along gangways, down from the batteries, bridges

and tops passes the dim procession of mangled
humanity. Borne tenderly by comrades, stumbling
blindly, groping, gasping, they stagger this way and
that. Here a man tears madly at his gas-mask
for air —
where no air is. Another beats with scarred
hands at his legs blazing with oil. And, in the
station, fifty more ghastly forms lying here and there ;

and over a makeshift operating table a young

surgeon bends, cleaning and cutting by the light
of a tiny electric torch. (Two months ago he
walked a London hospital.)
And clear through the thunderous din a voice
hails :

"
We've sunk another of the b s."
And I seethose figures dimly through the smoke ;
I see them raise themselves ; I see the poor form
on the table prop himself upon his elbow. I see
—
those men, those Britons. And, drowning the crash
of the bursting shell, I hear roll out a mighty British
"
cheer, because we've sunk another of the s."
 COMBAT 131
" "
Why do they cheer ? asked the dying Nelson,
as the shouts of the Victory s men came to him as
he lay.
" "
cheer," he was told,
They because another
ship has struck."
"
And at every hurrah a visible expression of joy
gleamed in the eyes and marked the countenance
of the dying hero." *

"A cheeriness which would have carried them through

anything."
And the stories illustrating that cheeriness and
astonishing sense of detachment on the part of
ollicers and men are endless. As it was with our
soldiers in the Flanders trenches, so also was it in
the Senior Service.
There is, for instance, the story of an incident
which has long since passed into a legend in the
Grand Fleet, but it may possibly be new to some
who read this. It is the story of how a couple of
stokers got a breath of fresh air in the middle of
the Jutland battle. Remember that here was the
greatest sea-fight knownpicturing toin history,
yourselves all that you
may imagine of the hideous
din, the smoke, flame, and smell.
And right in the middle of the action, a couple
of the "black squad' thrust their grimy, stream-
ing heads up through
a hatchway just to sec how
things were going and to get a breather.' They
'

had evidently started some animated discussion

down below in the stokehold, for
hey were carry- I

ing it on up above as they looked out. And a petty

* "
Soulhey's, Life of Nelson."
132 THE SEAFARERS
officer who was by at the moment overheard a
fragment of the conversation. Said one to the
other with great firmness :

"
But wot I says is, 'e ought to have married the
*
girl."
Always, it seems, is this cheeriness of spirit in
battle be found amongst British stock. And
to
one recalls, out of many similar incidents, the story
of the great fight between the Brunswick and the
French Vengeur, when Lord Howe won his famous
"
victory of the Glorious First of June."
For hour after hour the fierce duel had lasted,
the ships lying so close together that the Brunswick
could only raise the lids of the lower deck port-holes
by blowing them off with gun-fire.
The figure-head of the Brunswick was an effigy
of the famous Duke of that name and in the course ;

of the action his hat was shot off. Such disrespect

could not be tolerated so the sailormen sent a
;

solemn deputation to Captain Harvey and requested

the loan of his gold-laced hat with which to cover
his Grace's head. The request was granted, the
hat was nailed on, and the fight was continued.

And there we will leave the Despatch. But

there is one officer of whom that record of gallantry
and skill and heroism makes no mention. The
Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Sir John Rushworth
Jellicocj"
In an earlier volume I ventured to pay a poor
tribute to another great man of action, General
*
But history, alas does not tell us why.
!

t Now, of course, Viscount Jellicoe of Scapa.

 COMBAT 133
Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien.*
I offered it with great

diffidence, for Iwrote as a regimental officer under

his command. But I wrote also as one who had
had the privilege of working with the General out-
side active service. It is in similar fashion that
I write of Admiral Jellicoe.
In sympathetic terms Admiral Jellicoe spoke of
Sir David Beatty's fine work at Jutland :

"
I can fully sympathise with his (Sir David's) feelings when

the evening mist and fading light robbed the Fleet of that complete
victory for which he had manoeuvred, and for which the vessels
in company with him had striven so hard."

But what must have been the feelings of the

Commander-in-Chief ?

Of the executive naval officer and seaman I

do not presume to speak. Only his peers may
do that. Certainly not a civilian. History will
tell how Admiral Jellicoe served his country while

he filled his great office.

But as a comrade, as a man, as an unselfish,
modest, gallant and courteous English gentleman
Admiral Jellicoe had the affectionate admiration,
the love of every officer and man Avho was privileged
to serve under liis command.
The country, too, must not forget that it was
Admiral Jellicoe, ;is First Sea Lord, who perfected
Hie plans for dealing with the submarine menace.
Taking up I he heavy burden of the senior Naval
Administrator under conditions which were as cruel
;i>
any such officer has ever had to face, meeting
demands such as no Board of Admiralty has ever
before had to meet, Admiral Jellicoe and his col-
* "
The Retreat from Mons," page 2:52.
134 THE SEAFARERS
leagues grappled with the problem and defeated
it. The Admiral left office before the menace was

actually overcome, but his were the hands that

fashioned the weapon.
But the Grand Fleet itself is the bravest testimony
to the Admiral's genius. The knitting together of
Britain's ships into themost superb fighting force
that the world has ever seen. The ships will pass,
but the memory of it and of their first Commander-
in-Chief never.
Admiral Jellicoe has lived and worked, as a
Naval Officer must, outside the fierce limelight of
publicity and popular hero-worship. Nor would
he have had it otherwise. Others may gather to
themselves the rewards of his high endeavour :

but if ever a man, and a great seaman, might, in his

passing, echo with perfect truth the immortal last
"
words of the dying Nelson, Thank God, I have
"
done my duty that man is Admiral Lord Jellicoe.
!
 Light Craft, and Single Ship Actions
"Though we are but eleven to eighteen or twenty, we won't part

without a battle." —Nelson, at the West Indies.

But has been a war in which, for the most

this

part, the big ships have had, perforce, to stand

clear and give sea-room to their smaller sisters.
And what extraordinary fights some of those smaller
craft have put up. And what a catalogue it would
be only a complete list, day by day, from August,
if

'14, could be compiled. But the half will certainly

pass unrecorded.
Here is an old merchant tramp, with never a
gun or rifle aboard of her„ smashing and sinking an

enemy submarine. There is a destroyer capturing

an enemy air-craft. A British submarine puts to
flight a troop of Turkish cavalry and oversets by
shell fire half a dozen motor-lorries of ammunition :

and by way of revenge, it would seem, we have a

motor-lorry sinking a submarine by falling on top
of her.* Then there is the sea-plane which took
a ship prisoner and shepherded her safely into port
—oh and scores more of such queer topsy-turvy
!

happenings.
But if
you were to ask any officer or man of
the Fleet who, in his opinion, are the men and the
ships that have done the big work of the war I
*
Have you not beard that little story of poetic justice ? It
shall be told later uti.

135
 136 THE SEAFARERS
will wager that always you will receive the same
answer.
" "
And the answer is, Hats off to the destroyers !

I have already tried to suggest something of

the character of their work and how it has been
carried out. But again we want a whole volume
on the subject alone. It was Rear- Admiral Tyrwhitt
who was amongst the first of naval officers to
appreciate the great possibilities for T.B.D.'s in
war. That was during the eighteen months or so
before the outbreak in '14, at a time when Reginald
Tyrwhitt was Captain in command of the Second
Destroyer Flotilla. I believe, though, that he had
a hard tussle before he was able to get his views
and ideas adopted. But now, what a record of
service is- theirs — those little
grey ships.
If the Navy had
possessed three, four times the
number of destroyers that have been ours yet there
would not have been enough for the work. A T.B.D.
would return to her base after a long spell of. North
Sea gales she finds no time to re-fuel and re-victual
:

— let alone win any rest or a few hours' shore-leave

for the men — before ordered out again.
she is

Imagine what it must be like up north of the

Shetlands in mid-winter, with the cardboard sides
thickness of a destroyer between you and the fiercest
storms and heaviest seas of any waters on the face
of the globe.

Imagine clambering on to the tiny bridge in

oilskins which are soaked through to your skin
inside of five minutes when you've no more chance
;

of getting a dry stitch on you for another ten days

 COMBAT 137
than you have of dropping that night into the Goat
Club * for a gin and bitters.
Imagine those mighty seas twenty and thirty
feet high crashing across the bows and the spray

turning to ice as it falls when you will not get

;

any warm food or drink inside you from one week's

end to another. And you " carry on
'"
dead tired,
dog weary, frost-bitten toes and fingers you carry
—
on because it's your job. That is what those men of
the destroyers and their gallant commanders have
been doing.
And I have seen one of those destroyers limping
back into port looking for all the world like a battered
kerosene tin.
" ' "
Any complaints ? you hail the owner,"
half jokingly.
" "
Complaints ! I comes the
should think so !

"
reply. The blighters went and put a shell first

go off straight into the galley and we haven't been

able to get a mouthful of hot grub for nearly a
w< ek."
Not a word, you observe, about the makeshift
collisionmats which prevent the engine-room from
receiving more than its fair share of the Pentland
Firth. Or the breaking in of the foremost bulk-
head. Or the carrying overboard by shell lire of
most of
her guns. No mention of the smashed
steering-gear and wireless aerials, and the 9 knots
which is all the steam they can raise. No. The
same dear old complaint which the sailorman has
made since Cain and Abel paddled a coracle down
*
A pleasant little nook not a hundred miles from Piccadilly
Circus, and not quite unknown to R.N. Ollicers.
138 THE SEAFARERS
the Hiddekel (before their little difference of opinion),
" "
What about the grub ?
As Pepys naively remarked two hundred and
fifty years ago,
" —
To make any abatement from
the Seamen in the quantity or agreeableness of the
victuals is to provoke them in the tenderest point."
For your sailorman a good trencherman as
is

may readily be imagined. And a shortage in the

victualling department hits him more hardly in the
" "
tenderest point than it might you or me.
A burly A.B. drifted into an eating-house in
the Farringdon Road and asked what there was
for dinner.
" "
There's roast pork," said the girl, and roast
beef, boiled leg o' mutton, sausage-and-mash, and
faggots."
" "
Ay," said the A.B., that'll do fine— and a
cup of coffee."

There is no manner of work which ever comes

amiss to one of His Majesty's T.B.D.'s, from acting
as escort to a great battleship down to running an
errand and carrying a letter. As pretty a sight as
you may wish to see is that of a couple of destroyers
slipping quietly into station,
on either beam of,
say, H.M.S. Revenge, as she leaves the Firth of Forth
for the hidden dangers of the North Sea.
Just as the big ship clears a certain point at
the entrance, out come the two little destroyers,
detached from the Flotilla. "It's all right, you
we're here we'll see you through
poor old thing ;

safely," you
— can
;

imagine the little ships saying

to their big sister. And you look out from your

 COMBAT 139
port-hole early the next morning, and sure enough,
there they are. In just the same position as when
you turned in the night before. And there they
will remain, steaming quietly along until the big
sister is back again within the gateways of the
Forth.
Mine-laying
—that might fall under
"
Communi-
" "
cations or Combat." Anyway it is work which
has fallen to the
destroyers as being especially
hazardous. And from
the men of the destroyers
the Authorities have been at pains to select the very
finest in the Service. No easy task that of selection,
one would imagine.
At the darkest hours of the night, inside the
enemy's protecting minefields, close up against
the enemy coast, blocking his channels, have the
-destroyers laid their mines. And the work had to
be done often in a thick fog, in waters most difficult
of navigation, within range of enemy guns, and
under the very noses of his patrols. Steering a
course without navigation lights through unseen
enemy mines sown broadcast, where a few yards out
on either beam would bring you on top of one —
with an end to a gallant ship, and a few score gallant
lives.
lint needless to say the competition to share
in the work has been as keen as it was to share in

the almost certain death of the Zeebruggc affair.

During the last eight months

war the destroyers
of the

placed fewer than 12,000 mines in this fashion

n<>

inside the Heligoland Bight. And the result was

a bag of over one hundred enemy ships.
Patrol work and escort duty, examining ships
140 THE SEAFARERS
on the trade routes under all conditions and in all
weathers hunting U-boats
; saving hundreds of ;

lives from torpedoed passenger ships and merchant-

men ;
the Call should come, paying the price
and, if

of Admiralty cheerfully as becomes the British

sailor —
do you remember those two destroyers driven
ashore on the north of Scotland in a howling gale
and a raffing snowstorm, with two souls saved out
of two hundred ? But if you talk to a destroyer
commander about it he will merely shrug his shoulders
and remark, " Oh, well, we do see most of the fun
that's going, anyway."
Fun Well, there must be a deal of truth in
!

the remark or there would not be such a competition

to secure a job in the Flotillas. Every midshipman
you meet seems to live only for the day when he
" And '

may be a proud owner of a destroyer.

there always a free fight for any vacancy on board
is

of one. You feel the stirring call in your blood,

there's not a doubt of it. I have felt it many a
time myself when I have been out with them and —
they are jolly uncomfortable.
Dayday out, week after week, and month
in,
"
after month, have the destroyers carried on."
And whenever the chance comes for a fight, ready
on the instant for it, under any conditions and against
—
any odds and, mon Dieu but the men of H.M. !

destroyers know
way to fight. the
* of
Who will ever forget the story how the Broke
(Commander Evans) and the Sivift (Commander
* In the Recital I always tell this story, but as my good friend
'* "
Bartimeus has published it in one of his volumes I will not
reproduce it here.
 COMBAT 141

Peck) tackled a flotilla of six enemy destroyers in

the Dover Straits that April night ? Fought and
smashed them, leaving three only alive to escape
in the darkness. The yarn of those glorious five
minutes is one of the most splendid in all our island
story.
When the tradition of the Royal Navy is so real
and vital a thing in each and every unit of the Fleet
it were invidious to discriminate. One may only
say, then, that H.M. Destroyers have had most of
the opportunities, and that they have seized them,
and made more than the most of them. Admiral
Jellicoe has said the last word. The Royal Navy,
their comrades-in-arms, are proud of them. The
sailorman asks nothing£>
more.-

And speaking of the destroyers and the manner

in which they have upheld the Navy tradition, one
recalls instinctively the words of Nelson which I
have quoted at the head of this chapter
" —
We will
not part without a battle."
In those words, more than in any other saying
that I can discover, is summed up the fighting spirit
of the Royal Navy, and its demand for offensive
action rather than passive defence.
Rut there lies within them a deeper meaning
than you would at first suspect. It is, too, some-
thing of a paradox. Go straight for the enemy
no matter the odds, is, as I have already told, the
action. It is the very
inspiration of the Navy's
spirit of the offensive. Yet that does not. mean
thai you musl needs fighl the enemy whenever
and \vhcre\ er you may encounter him. There is
142 THE SEAFARERS
the apparent contradiction. And once again we
may turn to Nelson for the explanation.
" "
Yet do not imagine," he said, that I am
one of those hot-brained people who fight at an
immense disadvantage without an adequate object."
In the last four words lies the key. Nelson, at
the time he uttered them, was fully bent upon stopping
the career of Villeneuve, the French Admiral. He.
knew that the French had perhaps twenty sail of
"
the line to his own eleven, and therefore," he said,
"
do not be surprised if I do not fall on them imme-
diately."
But the " adequate object
'

was clear enough,

" "
and so Nelson was resolved not to part without
a fight.He might lose his eleven ships in the action,
but he would not lose them without so crippling
the French that they could do no further mischief
'

for some little time. Or, as Nelson put it, By

the time the enemy has beat our fleet soundly, they
will do us no harm this year." That was the object,
and it was " adequate."
But, again, Nelson did not intend to fight, just
for the fun of it, against heavy odds. If he was

indeed so to
compelled fight then he would do it in
" the offensive." But, given the chance,
the spirit of
he preferred to wait until the conditions of time and
place, wind and weather,
should relieve the odds
somewhat. And that is what he actually did.
The Broke and the Swift engaged as they did
because they must needs fight then or lose the enemy
altogether. Had Commander Peck been given the
choice I surmise that he would have preferred less
heavy odds. But, finding his enemy, and knowing
 COMBAT 143
instinctively that it was then or never, he acted in
the spirit of the offensive and with the happiest
results.
Admiral Tyrwhitt, in taking his four cruisers
north to ''investigate' the matter of the fourteen
battleships, did not, I imagine, propose to steam
blindly into action against them. He was going
to employ his light force as light cruisers should be
used against battleships, to keep in touch with the
enemy and report. To imagine otherwise is as
good as saying that the Admiral did not know
his job. Had he, in doing his duty, found it ne-
cessary to fight then one may be sure that he
too would have fought as the spirit of the Navy
dictates.
Nelson did not invent the doctrine which lie-
have quoted. For
set forth in the sentences of his I
the general principle that offence is the best, the-
only real policy had been recognised and practised
by our seafarers centuries before. Drake, for in-
stance, used a very similar argument when urging
the Naval Authorities to allow him to attack the
Armada before it should leave its home base.* But
it was Nelson, with his consummate genius
left lor

for sea-warfare, to visualise the principle in all its

forms, to crystallise it into a perfect whole, and so
to give it to the world under I lie
stamp of his unique
"
authority and personality. The Nelson touch,"
as his captains enthusiastically acclaimed it.

* "
Nor again did Nelsou origin ite the fatuous breaking of the
enemy's line of battle"which was the main feature of Trafalgar.
The idea was Admiral Rodney's, and by adopting it he won the
"
victory of TU-.. Saints'' twenty odd years before
144 THE SEAFARERS
Haunted throughout the war by the depreda-
tions of German U-boats our people have rather
overlooked the fact that we too include submarines
in our Navy. Yet our submarine service is one
which might well adopt the famous motto of the
"
Royal Scots Greys, Second to None." It is true
that we have heard but little news of their sinking
enemy ships upon the high seas, but then the reason
—
has been an excellent one there have been no Ger-
man ships on the high seas to sink. All, or most
of the work has been done within enemy waters
and enemy minefields.
But, my masters, what do ye lack ? Is it a
talc of high adventure and discovery in the frozen
Arctic Seas ? I have a ballad which shall nip your
fingers and shrivel your nose with the cold as you
listen. Asong of a winter night that holds for
four eternal months, when the sun never rises, and
the noonday brings but a dim twilight. When the
pack-ice forms in the harbour, breaks and drifts
to sea, and the snow lies three feet deep on the
shore. When the cold is so intense that it hurts
to put the head out to breathe ;
and to fall overboard
means instantaneous death.
(One can fully sympathise with the member of
a submarine's crew, who, on being told very bluntly
"
by his superior officer to go to hell," replied with
"
equal emphasis, Do you think I'd stay here if I

could?")
Or a song of an Arctic summer's day all too brief,
when the land is hidden 'neath a carpet of azalea
and harebells, and bees and butterflies hover from
flower to flower. When a sapphire sea reflects the
 COMBAT 145
shimmering blue of a cloudless sky, and the skuas
and wild geese, the eider duck, snow-bunting and
Arctic hare make merry sport. When a man may
situpon the hull of the submarine as she lies awash
and battle vaguely, hopelessly with the brown fog
of mosquitoes which almost blot out the lines of
the conning-tower amidships.
Through Arctic summer and Arctic winter have
the submarines of ours " carried on."
Is a tale of gallant bearing and incredible
it

romance such as Jules Verne would hardly have

dared to invent ? Here I have the ballad of the
'
E 11," of Lieutenant-Commander M. E. Nasmith,
"
R.N., her owner," and of her cheery crew. It is
a song of the Sea of Marmara and the Dardanelles,
of waters stagnant with mines, blocking the fair-

ways, of German and Turkish destroyers racing

hither and thither, of land forts bristling witli guns
and torpedo tubes, of enemy troopships and armed
dhows passing and repassing.
It a song of the
is
"
E 11 " as she found a way
beneath the mines, diving blindly with instinct at
her helm to con her. It tells how she rose unnoticed
before the very gates of the Turkish capital, sank a
Turkish warship by the entrance, and, to celebrate
" '

the occasion, piped all hands to bathe -in enemy

waters. Mow with damaged periscope
;i she fought
this ship and that, chasing one on shore, boarding
another; engaged a body of enemy cavalry; fouled
a mine and carried it on her body unable to wriggle
clear until she reached friendly waters, when a neat
nosc-divc and baek-somcrsault combined shook it
off. A song of a fortnight's cruise and a piece of
K
146 THE SEAFARERS
"
work so performed that the Turks swore that 11
was not her designating
designa figure but the number of
submarines engaged.

Ayr ! a goodly tally, these songs of His

"lis

Majesty's Submarines. Stories that shall be told,

songs that shall be sung in castle and hall, cottage

and ale-house, for many a year to come. Songs of
unhesitating self-sacrifice for comrades like that of
the heroic death of Lieutenant-Commander Goodhart ;

of weary vigil and unceasing watch in the Baltic of ;

fights with enemy aeroplanes ;

of duels with enemy
submarines.
"
The that the commanders have sent in
; "

logs
to MyLords of the Admiralty make extraordinary
reading. They should be published just as they
stand, for they need no comment save from an
occasional footnote to explain sea and Navy ex-

pressions and words.

Here, for instance, are three little entries from
the log of the submarine which sank the German
cruiser Hela. They tell of just one quarter of an
hour's work but to the making of it there went
;

ten days of toil and discomfort in enemy waters,

ten days of battling with nor' -westerly gales, rain
squalls, heavy seas and fogs, of brut stanchions and
plates, of narrow escapes from enemy mines and

7.15 a.m. — Sighted

Heligoland, distant 5 miles on port; also
cruiser approximately \\ to 2 miles off, and wisps of smoke in
various directions. Attacked cruiser. Position 000 yards abeam
cruiser (two funnels). Submarine very lively diving. Fired both
bo -,y torpedoes at starboard Bide.
7.29 a.m. —
Heard single loud explosion.
 COMBAT 147
7.32 a.m.— Rose Observed cruiser between waves.
to 28 feet.

Appeared to have stopped and listed to starboard. Dived 70 feet

to pick up trim.

And for the following thirty hours or so the

submarine had to pay the penalty of her daring
by bumping about on the bed of the sea while enemy
destroyers buzzed angrily about overhead looking
for her.

To a soldier and a landsman the real wonder of

a submarine's achievement lies in this, that the
commander and his little ship's company must always
be playing a lone hand, working in the deadly
monotony of isolation far from their comrades. It
is easy enough to fight a field battery in the open,
"
or to go over the top in a bunch with your men
behind and around you. Even in a destroyer you
'•rally have a sister ship within hail.
to remain for perhaps a month or more on
But
"
(inl shut up in the heart of an eight-day clock,"
seeing nothing of the world save an occasional
bird's-eye view of waste of waters glimpsed through
;>

Mi- I e of
periscope; lying submerged for maybe
-i

fort) hours a! a stretch in

peril every minute
I

of a sudden and horrible death dealt by an unknown,

hand living on tinned air and tinned food;
;

crowded with barely the room to stand

together
uprighl one marvels indeed thai any man anion; I

them has an atom of nerve left when if comes to

i he acl ual fight ins.
niil
I had made my first trip in a submarine
!

I had no conception how wonderful their achieve-

ments reall) were. A a matter of fact, had never I
148 THE SEAFARERS
seriously thought about it.Most people derive their
ideas (as I did) of life and
work in a submarine from
"
Verne's romance, Twenty Thousand Leagues under
the Sea." One pictures the ship sinking gracefully
through the water until she comes peacefully to
rest on the bottom. You imagine yourself sitting
at a plate-glass window gazing at the marvels of
ocean illumined by powerful searchlights, forests
life

of coral and sea plants, great fish swimming through

the branches. Or you open a little door in the ship's
side,and, equipped with breathing apparatus and
some curious kind of rifle, step out upon the ocean's
bed and sally forth upon a shooting expedition.
Some day, doubtless, men will experience such
delights, but not just yet. For do people understand
that once a submarine has submerged, periscope
too, she is absolutely blind ? There is not even a
port-hole from which you may watch the fish swim-
ming by. And if there were it would be too dark
to see them.
you grasp that fact you may begin to realise
If
how astonishing was the feat of the submarine which
dived underneath five rows of mines in the Darda-
nelles —to take one incident out of hundreds. How
it was done do not pretend to guess, any more
I
than I shall ever be able to understand how you
may stand in Piccadilly Circus and talk to a friend
on Broadway, New York City, by a telephone with-
out wires.
One is tempted to write more fully of
sorely
these remarkable ships and of their crews. To tell
of the great
"
K " boats, some 340 feet long, carrying
funnels, and built for service with the linc-of-ualllc
 COMBAT 149
ships. Of the submersible monitors with guns sueh
as only the biggest ships had carried. But one must
hasten on.
Even in the Navy the submarines, their types
and their exploits, have been veiled in a mist of
secrecy. The veil is now being raised, and the
stories are being told. But the figures of our losses
in submarines tell only too sadly how these ships
and their companies have paid the price of Admiralty.
Let me set them down :

...
.....
Lost by enemy action
Interned
39
3
Blown up by their crews in Russian

drawn .....
harbours when crews were with-
7
Accidents (on
Wrecked .....
Lost by collision
trial,

....
etc.) . . 4
1

Total . 59

It is a heavy total, and 39 lost by enemy action

shows very clearly the hazardous work upon which
they have been engaged. Against that figure and
for comparison we may set the number 203. And
that is the number of German submarines with
which the Mariners of England have well and truly
deal! during the four years odd of war. 203 killed,
sunk or captured; more actually surrendered
l.'5.">

under the terms of the Armistice; 50 more at the

time of writing are still l<> be brought in.

But once again 1 would emphasise this. British

150 THE SEAFARERS
submarines have had perforce to do their work
mainly within enemy waters, righting under the
terms laid down by the enemy. German sub-
marines have carried their pirate flag across the
sea highways of the world. Of enemy methods and
of the hunting of the enemy I will say a little under
"
my final heading, Communications."

Now if there one kind of yarn more than

is

another that your healthy Briton enjoys it is a

story of a good sporting fight against odds. Not a
big fleet action —Mr. John Citizen cannot grasp that
— nor a big land battle. Trafalgar and Waterloo
were very satisfactory, and all that kind of thing,
"
but the scale of fighting is a bit beyond me."
But when it comes to, say, the Defence of Rorke's
Drift ;
or the Guards at Landrecies or Sir Edward
;

Pellew with his forty-four-gun frigate tackling the

French Droiis-de-V Hoimne with her seventy-four
"
guns; or the Chesapeake and the Shannon, or L '

Battery at Nery why —

then,
"
just wait till this
"
pipe draws properly and he (and Mrs. John
Citizen, too) will listen mouse-quiet for a couple of
hours.
Our sea story thousand years is crowded
for a
with such episodes. Indeed it is curious how often
the mariners of England have had to fight against
odds, in big battles and in small. Everyone knows
how insignificant seemed the English Fleet, in
numbers and size of ships, in the campaign of the
Spanish Armada. Hubert de Burgh, in one of the
first of our sea battles,* fought a French fleet of
* See ante, page 61.
 COMBAT 151
over ninety ships with but forty English. And
in the last great sea-fight of sailing ships, Trafalgar,
Nelson had twenty-seven sail of the line to Ville-
neuve's thirty-three.
Of clean fighting, ship against ship, during the
Great War, there have been very few instances. Of
amazing fights in by merchantmen
self-defence
against would-be murderers, and of the hunt and
—
the kill of those same there have been hundreds.
"
But, for the moment, we are considering the straight
game."
The last fight of the Emden, for instance, when
the German ship met her fate in a ship of the
despised Australian Navy, H.M.A.S. Sydney. But
it was an
unequal duel, for the German had no chance
against her far more powerful antagonist. Hence
the British public, only too eager to find any gallantry
and sportsmanship in the enemy, openly sympathised
with his defeat and warmly approved the humane
and courteous treatment meted out to Captain von
Miiller and his men.*
Anotherfight against hopeless odds was the
gallant defence put up by the Clan Mactavish, a
chantman, against the German commerce-raider
the Moewe. The German ship carried seven guns
and a couple of torpedo tubes against one little gun
carried by the ISiitish ship. This happened in
January, L916, and one is happy to record that the
behaviour of the German officers was scrupulously
correel .

*
Thiii any public commenl should have been made upon this,
the usual British habil ol courtesj to a vanquished enemy, in-
dicates how rare were the occasions in the War for the display of
these little amenities of honourable combat.
152 THE SEAFARERS
It was late afternoon when the Clan
in the
Mactavish, proceeding under easy steam, sighted
two strange ships in company. After a brief inter-
change of signals one of the strangers, closing rapidly
at the time, signalled the curt order :

'

Stop immediately. We
are a German cruiser.
Don't use wireless."
The skipper of the Clan Mactavish, with the
traditional instinct of the fighting seafarer, acted
very promptly. He rang down for full speed,
called to the wireless operator to send out the S.O.S.
and to the gunner to stand by.
The Moewe as promptly opened fire, and the
range was about 500 yards. The fight was over
almost as soon as it had begun. The first shell from
the German burst inside the steward's cabin and
wrecked it the second on the foredeck
; others ;

within the water-line and the engine-room put the

Clan Mactavish out of all control and stopped her.
The Clan Mactavish was only able to get in five rounds
to the eleven of the Moewe before the end came.
The German sent an armed party aboard, the
British master and crew were transferred to the
raider, and the Clan Mactavish was sunk.
What was in the mind of the British skipper
when he decided to fight we do not know. Doubtless
he thought no more about it than did Commander
Fox of the Mary Rose. It was just the old " back
"
to the wall spirit, and so was one more page added
to the golden book of the Merchant Seamen. The
Royal Navy, ever quick in their appreciation of their
sea-comrades, telegraphed a message of sympathy
through Admiral Jellicoe :
 COMBAT 153
'
The magnificent fight shown by the Clan
Mactavish fills us in the Grand Fleet with admira-

tion. We sympathise deeply with those who have

lost relatives as a result of the action."

But the duel between the Car mania and the

Cap Trafalgar was another kind of story. Here the
two ships were evenly matched, with a slight ad-
vantage to the German in guns. The Carmania
opened the ball by firing a shot across the German's
bows by way of a summons to surrender. The Cap
Trafalgar replied with a broadside. Then the two
went at it hammer and tongs.
Just as the fight began the first officer of the
Carmania went to the master to put forward a
request from the crew.
" "
What is it ? said the skipper.
'
The men's compliments, sir," said
respectful
the officer, "and they've got the cutlasses nice
and handy if
you'll be so good as to lay us along-
side"
the men my compliments," said the
*

Give
'

skipper, but I'm sorry I cannot oblige them this

time. Tell them to keep the guns going, and I'll
do the rest."
Ami the skipper was
good as his word. By
;is

splendid seamanship Ik- kept the Carmania alter-

nately bows ;iik1 stern dm to the enemy, so as to offer
ill-- smallest possible targel to the German guns,
the while his join crews poured in a steads' stream
of shell.
In twenty minutes that fighl was over. Within
half an hour the (dj) Trafalgar had gone down in
154 THE SEAFARERS
a riot of flame and the Carmanias boats were out
pickingup the survivors.
But I guess the Carmanias skipper was a proud
man when he learned what his crew wanted of him.
And what a story there would have been to tell had
he granted their request !

But for a piece of splendid pluck and clean fight-

ing against big odds give me every time the story
of the Gowan Lea and Joseph Watt, the skipper of
her. It is not a submarine yarn, and so it shall
come here.
The Gowan Lea was just a little trawler ship,
sort of penny steamer kind that you see on the
Thames. She carried the usual crew of six men and
—
a boy, and a little gun up in the bows a little pop-
gun that shoots peas.
Now the Gowan Lea was down in the Adriatic
helping to clear up some of the mess that the Huns
had behind in the shape of mines. And one
left
fine morning up over the horizon there came an
Austrian light cruiser. And she steamed in and
called to the Gowan Lea to surrender.
But Joseph Watt on the tiny bridge, hecalled up
—
on deck his little crew his crew of six men and a
—
boy and he hauled the Jack up to the mast, and
he called for three cheers for the King, and he sent
one of the hands up forrard to the little gun in the
—
bows the little popgun that shoots peas and he —
opened fire on the enemy.
The Austrian opened fire the shells went back-
;

ward and forward the deck-hand up forrard had one

;

of his legs shattered by a shell —

but they fought on.
 COMBAT 155
And the Austrian cruiser, whether she thought
that the Gowan Lea was a submarine in disguise or
'
a mystery
'

ship I don't know, but she turned

tail ami fled. And Joseph Watt had
the joy of
bringing ship out
his of action as victor with his
colours flying and he got the Victoria Cross for
;

it, and richly he deserved it.

Joseph Watt was the man who used to bring

you your kippers for breakfast before the War.
"
Kippers. That's his job. Fed up " though he
was with the mine-sweeping business, anxious to
"
get back to his haddocks, yet he carried on,"
like the rest. And we may go down on our knees
and thank God for it.

"
Now, to round off this rude, brief recitative,"
it must be told how watch and ward was
kept in
"
the North Sea by the " Mock Turtle Squadron of
battleships. Did I say that there had been no
Fleet action save "Jutland Bank"? Oh, but I
"
forgot. We must really count in the Mock Turtles."
A mighty squadron they were, to all outward
appearance. Great
gaunt battleships with their
inch guns peering through armoured turrets.
Anti-aircrafi guns, towering
bridges
quick-firers,
high up. Majestically they rode at anchor. Majes-
tically they ploughed through the seas, line ahead
or line abreast, close ordered, rank on rank. Emblems
of ih'- glory and mighl of our Sea-Empire, so they
watched and waited before the enemy coasts.
See the conscious pride with which the great
flagship leads the van. Mark the discipline of her
of
" action stations." A
hip's company a1 the call
156 THE SEAFARERS
trifle heavy of gait, some of the men somewhat ;

broad of bulk, not moving quite so briskly as, per-

haps, they used to do. Inclined to puff and blow
a bit when they have to do a little running about.
Still, what of that be sure that the guns will be
;

served none the less readily.

Guns !
—
well, now I'll tell you a little secret.
Quite in confidence, of course. Sure no one is listen-
ing ? Well, the only guns on the flagship are two
little rifles which a couple of sportsmen brought

aboard to shoot sea birds with. Fact, I assure

you.
But those two 13-inch forrard Well, to tell !

you the honest truth they came out of a saw- mill

only last week. They're just painted wood.
In short, the whole squadron is one glorious fake.
A lot of old unseaworthy merchant tramps saved
from the scrap-heap. All except the flagship. And
the flagship, biggest joke of all, is or rather was a
well-known German liner.

So those old wooden dummies sailed the seas.

Up and down before Heligoland they steamed, fairly

putting the fear of God into the Huns. How the
German Secret Service must have cursed some of
their agents for misleading them over the strength
of the British battle-fleet.
And the Fleet action ? It was the Dogger Bank
" "
affair inJanuary, '15. The Mock Turtles were
away up in the north and the enemy scouts reported
the fact. The coast seemed clear and out came
"
the Germans for a game of tip and run." Un-
luckily, though, for them Sir David Beatty and his
" '
were the mouse-hole
Cat squadron watching
 COMBAT 157
(it was not a pre-arranged affair as far as I am
" ,: '

aware) and the Cat squadron pounced, with the

result which all the world knows. So the " Mock
'

Turtles may fairly claim some credit for their

share in the action. In fact My Lords admitted
as much.
"
It was odd, though, that the Mock Turtles "
managed for so long to evade the unwelcome atten-
tions of enemy submarines. There were a few alarms
but nothing happened. It would have been very
galling, one imagines, to have been attacked with
no reply possible save a few rounds from the rook-
rifles. But probably the ships' companies would
have been rolling about on the deck doubled up with
laughter all the while.
Admiral went along one day to inspect
Jellicoc
the squadron. Boarding the flagship he glanced
round. His practised eye noted a small skiff slung
somewhere amidships.
'What ship do you represent?' the Admiral
asked the skipper.
The Ajax, sir,*' replied the skipper.
"Then thai boat does not belong there," re-
marked the Admiral.
The meresl trifle, perhaps, but it suggests once
mi how the Royal Navy attends to detail.
Two of 'Mock
Turtles' did good service
the
in the
Mediterranean, and there one of them met
her end. She was torpedoed by a submarine as
'
she corted some merchanl tramps. And even
when the submarine commander saw the great
L8-inch guns floating about on the water he didn't
that he had wasted 11,000 worth of torpedo
158 THE SEAFARERS
on a dummy. The commander was taken prisoner
shortly afterwards, and the Navy tells with glee
how they found him gibbering with unholy laughter,
vowing that never again would he touch Scotch
whisky.
"
But that is probably just a little of the Navy
touch," added for the benefit of the poor, unso-
phisticated landsman.
 CONVOY
"
If anyone wishes to know the history of this war I will tell

them it is our maritime superiority gives me the power of maintaining

my army while the enemy are unable to do so."
—Wellington (in Spain, 1813).

Of all the many phases of the work of the Navy

in the Great War there is nothing in which public
indifference has been more marked than in the
matter of transport and convoy of our troops. It
is certainly curious that it should be so for there

can be few households in the Kingdom which have

not sent a son or brother into the Army. Yet this,
the most astonishing feat which has ever been per-
formed by a Naval Power, has been taken for granted
as a piece of ordinary, simple routine work.
The Navy, ever gives a thought to that
if it

display of indifference, doubtless takes it as a com-

plimenl and goes calmly on its way. JSut, for my
own part, I cannot but feel that it has passed beyond
the limits of a joke In common justice to our sca-
farers, if for i ther reason, it is the duty of the
Authority I of the Press to sec to it thai our

pie are fully informed upon this point at least.

I
fully admil the difficulties for I am faced with
them here. Figures and statistics are tiresome,
stubborn things, and very dull reading. Besides
no one can possibly grasp lh<' meaning of the enor-
mous figures with which the country has deal! during
159
160 THE SEAFARERS
the War. It is no manner of use
telling Mr. John
Citizen that we have been spending seven million
pounds sterling per day. He will merely blink in
vague wonder and inquire when haddocks are going
to be cheaper " Is. 6d. each is an awful
; price."
Well, let us try to gather up a few facts in this
"
matter of Convoy." And under this heading I
am concerned solely with the maritime transport
of our troops (and of some of our Allies) and the
maintenance of our Armies in the field.
At the outset, in August, '14, we were concerned
only with a single sphere of operations Belgium
—
and France. To this, West Africa was added almost
at once. Then one by one were added the others
until, in 1918, we were actually at work in no fewer
than seven theatres of war :

France, Palestine,
Italy, Salonika,
N. Russia, Africa,
Mesopotamia.
Each of those theatres was provided with a
stock company which had to be kept fully equipped
"
in personnel and equipment to carry on the con-
tinuous performance." No forty-seven hour week
for them, and ten minutes allowed off before lunch
for washing your hands.
Some figures I must give ;
it is inevitable. You
willnot grasp them any more than I do, but they
must go down. Here then is the number of men
of ours transported by sea between August, '14, and
November 30, 1918 :
—
23,705,814
 CONVOY 161
A number representing rather more than half
the total population of the United Kingdom in
1914 ;
and more than double that of the population
of England and Wales at the close of the Napoleonic
Wars.
Of those twenty-three million odd we have lost
upon the high seas no more than 5,000. Of the
5,000 some 3,000 were lost by enemy action, in-
cluding 550 in hospital ships, and the remainder by
the ordinary perils of the sea.
Thai is th<' number of personnel, effective and
non-effective, carried by military sea transport
under the sure shield of the British Navy and by
the Mariners of England.

That seems to mc worth talking about if only

one can get the meaning of these figures home.
And yet that figure of the personnel represents
but a fraction of the total transport. Nor has
this transport anything whatever to do with the

convoy of our merchant ships. Take just one more

number, thai of the horse transport.
The British Navy has transported by sea
2,^40,495 horses and mules between the same dates.
And have you ever seen them embarking and
disembarking just one ship ? Let
fifty horses in

alone (Imules. on a kinema

wish I could turn
film of mule :i
being taken on hoard. Thai would
bring home the job of tackling a few thousand of
Hi.- beasts.)
\mu here is a little point for comparison. The
•<)|d ContemptibL lined up at Mons, and opened
the War for Britain, just about 78,000 strong. In
i.
162 THE SEAFARERS
March, 1918, when, you remember, the Ger-
will
mans made their last big win the Channel
effort to

ports, and when everyone at home was gripping the

arms of his chair at the news of our losses, the
British Navy took its coat off, rolled up its sleeves
and buckled to.
Within ten days the Navy carried across to France
close upon 250,000 men and their equipment, zvithout
the loss of a single man, horse, or gun.
As a feat of organisation and transport alone
it is staggering enough. But when you add in all
the defence measures necessary against a cunning
and unscrupulous enemy, and the wholly success-
ful foiling of submarine attacks —I know no word
to describe it. The Admiralty, in their official
"
report, called it stupendous," so we will leave
it at that.

And here one or two points about methods of

submarine attack will not be out of place, for they
may show some of the difficulties involved.
serve to
I willtake the case of the transport full of American
troops which was torpedoed off the south of Ireland
in the spring of 1918.
The ship was under the escort of destroyers, a
light cruiser and aircraft
every possible precaution
;

was taken. At about in the afternoon the

4.30
captain received the warning that enemy submarines
were about. You may imagine that if everyone
was on the look-out before that the closest watch
was kept after the message came through. Nothing
happened. Suddenly, about 7.0, without another
word of warning, there was a crashing explosion
 CONVOY 163
from a torpedo, and the transport began to go down.
No one saw either submarine or torpedo.
An ordinary submarine can submerge com-
pletely within thirty or forty seconds, at the worst
within two minutes. She can remain submerged
without ever coming to the surface for forty-eight
hours and she can steam 100 miles under water
;

without coming up. Her speed on the surface

averages 14-18 knots; submerged, 8-10 knots.
Apart from any guns she may have on board a
submarine will carry perhaps 20 torpedoes. Now
a torpedo has a range of about five miles, and a
speed of anything up to 40 knots. (Some of our
most valuable cargoes are carried in ships which
only make about 7 knots.) And — this is the par-
ticular point to bear in mind a submarine need
—
not come to the surface to fire her torpedoes.
Now imagine that you arc standing within a
submarine by the side of the commander, the eye-
piece of the periscope before him. Above the water
there projects a few inches of the periscope, which
isabout as big round as a smallish flower-pot. If
it visible at all from a ship it can look no larger
is

than a match in the waste of waters.

Through the periscope the commander sights a
ship. lie takes a bearing submerges the periscope.;

In. say, ten minutes up goes the periscope and

another bearing on the ship is taken. (We are
imagining a
perfectly simple ease where the ship
keeps t<» a direct course.) Down comes the peri-
pe.
In. say, fifteen minutes the commander will
H'm now "
"

think we'll do thai ship in

-

remark, ! 1
!
i6 4 THE SEAFARERS
He gives his order. Off goes the torpedo. Up goes
the ship.
Now, if those few facts be borne in mind the
wonder will be, not that so many of our mer-
chant ships have been sunk but that any have ever
escaped.

And apropos of the American transport the

British Navy has this, too, to its credit 2,080,000
:

(two million and eighty thousand) American soldiers

came to France. The men, their baggage, their
guns, horses, food, and all the impedimenta of so

mighty a modern army.

All those men and their gear had to be trans-

ported across 3,000 miles of Atlantic Ocean. Seas

" "
in which enemy submarines were all out to sink
every transport possible for it was Germany's last
;

chance. She had to stop those transports, or,

colossal egoist though she is, she knew her end was
certain.
The Americans came. Of their two million odd
considerably over one million were carried across
in British ships. And British warships furnished
15 per cent of the total escort.
Of those 2,080,000 American soldiers only 747
were lost on the high seas.
And, be it noted, the British Navy had sundry
other jobs in hand at the same time.
To my great regret I saw only too little of the
American ships and sailormen in our Home waters,
so I cannot say much from first-hand. But Admiral
Bcatty has many times voiced the professional
opinion of the Grand Fleet, and that opinion was
 CONVOY 165
a high one. Certain it is, though, that Great Britain
owes a very real, a very great debt of gratitude to
Admiral Sims and Admiral Rodman of the United
States Navy.
The task of co-operation between the two Navies
was a most difficult one. American Navy ways are
not Royal Navy ways. The British sailorman is
jealous (and rightly so) of the great tradition of his
calling. For he has acquired it through the storm
and stress of a thousand years.
But it was a great and a notable example that
Admiral Sims and Admiral Rodman set and their
;

countrymen, being sailors, saw that it was good,

put aside their differences, and started in to learn
our ways. And only the officers and men of the
Royal Navy can appreciate how hard the task
was. Other pens than mine will, I hope, pay the
tribute that is the due of those two gallant officers
and most courteous gentlemen.
Well, yes, I must admit there was a certain
amount of professional jealousy knocking about
between the American sailorman and his British
comrade They are quaint chaps, those American
sailors. 1 have seen a
good deal of them on the
Pacific coasl in pre-war days, and even then —
well,
they maintained a very strong opinion about the
"
might of God's own country."
»ut one of them met his Waterloo on a
I
day at
Le Havre. And it was thuswisc.
Say, Jack," said the American sailorman to
a British bluejacket as they forgathered over a
"
is thai the British Fleet out there ?
"
friendly glass,
And he pointed out of the window across the
166 THE SEAFARERS
harbour where a few T.B.D.s, submarines and a light
cruiser ortwo rode at anchor.
" "
Lord, no
'

snorted the bluejacket.

! A few
light craft, patrol ships and things."
" "
Well," said the American, I guess we've got

any little old steam-tug our side would tow the

whole of the British Fleet into Noo York harbour."
And he smiled with relish.
" " "
H'm ! said Jack. Maybe. Very likely.
But " —very slowly
— "
it 'ud take a damned sight
cleverer man than
Christopher Columbus to discover
America afterwards."
So now back to England once again.

'
no spot that
'

In all this land of ours there is

"
is for ever England more hallowed by memories of
home than is Dover. To the wanderer those fair
white cliffs give England's last farewell as he sets
forth upon his journey, her radiant welcoming as
he returns.
From our earliest history the Dover Straits and
the Narrow Seas have been the cockpit of England's
sea warfare. They have witnessed our victories,
our defeats, and our humiliation. To tell the story
of Dover and the Kentish and Sussex shore is
almost to tell the story of England.
Now once again has the Moving Finger written.
Nor may we, if we would, blot out a single word of
the writing for the tears of pride and of sorrow that
;

we let fall for the gallant dead sleeping beneath

those seas they will but illumine in flaming gold the
dear names of those our loved ones.
For the story of the Dover Patrol tells how once
VICE-ADMIRAL SIR ROGER KEYES
 CONVOY 167
again the mariners of England kept the Narrow
Seas secure against an enemy. Tells, too, how our
honourable and chivalrous foes of yesterday have
been our comrades in arms to-day. How the fisher-
folk of splendid Breton stock have fought side by
side with their brothers of our southern and eastern
shores shared with them the toil and the danger,
;

reaped with them the harvest of fame and honour.

Gentlemen of the Royal Navy, I pray you stand
aside for the moment Yours, I grant you, has !

been the direction of the operations. Yours the

gallant Commanders
—
Rear- Admiral Sir Horace Hood,
Vice-Admiral Sir Reginald Bacon, Vice-Admiral Sir
Roger Keyes. Yours the submarines, the destroyers,
—
but what of the rest ? I know you for the good
sportsmen you are you will not grudge the poor
;

tribute one may pay to, shall I say, the rank and
file?
For it was the deep-sea fishermen and the lands-
men of the sea-breed, the third and fourth estates
of the British Navy, who kept the Narrow Seas
tluough the years of the Great War. The fisher-
men in their drifters and trawlers, 256 little vessels
all told the landsmen in their tiny motor-launches,
;

25 of them. Naval Reserve men, too, as I have

already on the monitors and other ships.
told,*
"
All of them with a zeal and enthusiasm
serving,
which could not have been surpassed," f day and
night without ceasing for four and a half years, all
weathers, winter and summer, snow, sleet, fog, and
sunshine.
*
Ante, page <s I.

t Vice-Admiral Bacon in his first despatch.

168 THE SEAFARERS
Not that I would for a moment detract from
the never-ending task of the destroyers, for to them
fell the duties of offence
against enemy submarines
and enemy destroyers (when they ventured out).
But even this task was shared by the cheery little

drifters, the Abigails of the Fleet.

How Blake and Rodney and Hawke would have
rubbed their eyes in amazement could they have
revisited in these days the waters that they knew
so well. I picture old Lord Howe in his great
100-gun line-of-battle ship setting a course down
Channel. Before ever he reaches the first barrier
a cheeky motor-launch frisks across his bows and
hails my Lord to heave to. And the Admiral gazes
down in stupefaction at the tiny Lilliputian whom
he could haul up through a port-hole and drop into
his waistcoat pocket.
"
What ship is that ? " roars my Lord, ever the
polite gentleman.
'
His Majesty's ship Mammoth,'''' comes back the
"
answer. And I must request you to haul across
and follow me at two cables' length or you'll be
blown up."
And what
'
is your office, sir, may I ask ?
'

calls my Lord.
'
Down Channel patrol for the present," says
"
the Mammoth, stage manager of the Palaceum
Theatre of Varieties in civil life."
' '

Good Gedgasps my Lord as he staggers

!

"
back into a bottle of port.
his cabin for A sailor
of sixty years and an Admiral to boot to be ordered
across on His Majesty's seas by a rascally play-
"
actor !
 CONVOY 169
Never before have the good Dover folk looked
upon such an astonishing medley of shipping. Great
monitors
flat-bellied crazy old battleships painted
;

allcolours of the rainbow that you may never tell

what course they are steering latest types of ;

destroyers which can race the London-Plymouth

express squat-bowed fishing-steamers
; exquisite ;

yachts of American millionaires and English duch-

esses, with their marble baths full of good Welsh
steam coal and their staterooms littered with pickled
salmon tins a slim motor-launch that has won
;

races in New
Jersey, now vain as a peacock in her
drab grey paint and a torpedo tube that fires real
live torpedoes old merchant tramps and graceful
;

liners, all hacked about and camouflaged out of all

knowledge —
these and half a score more.
And out for the Dover Patrol, up
they're all

and down Channel after the Hun like hounds after

a fox. Shepherding a meat ship from Australia
through the mazes of a minefield steering a great
troopship through a thick sea-fog 125,100 ships
;

—
has the Dover Patrol passed through its gates
since August, 1914, and only 73 of them have been
lost—73 ships out of 125,100.
Over 7,000 men a day were we sending back-
wards and forwards to France. Over 30,000 tons
ol* stores were imported each day into France for
our Armies. 52,000,000 tons of stores altogether
were transported under British convoy.
Think of the millions of letters that went to
cheer our men on the Western Front. You, dear
lady, in your little villa in Dulwich, when you packed
that plum-pudding so carefully, that little parcel
170 THE SEAFARERS
of peppermints and meat extract wrapped round
by a woolly scarf moistened by your precious mid-
—
night tears did you give a passing thought to those
old Grimsby trawler-men who, at the peril of their
lives,saw to it that your loving gift was carried safely ?
You, my lass, in your cottage just outside grimy
—
Accrington when you added the last little note
from your " lad " to that packet which you cherish
so dearly that packet of soiled and stained half-
;

sheets and meagre Service postcards now fastened

round by a slip of dainty ribbon did you ever —
wonder how they came to reach you ? Do you
remember that last little note arriving that night —
when you had almost given up all hope ? Let me
tell you how it came.

It was at Boulogne that they shipped the mail-

bags aboard the steamer. A dreadful night of wind

and sleet coming down from the nor' -east. The
captain misdoubted if he'd be able to start at all.
You've seen something of big seas at Blackpool
in the autumn —" high tides
"
when the waves —
sweep over the esplanade and drive half-way up
those narrow streets. Imagine those waves out in
the open seas, and the force of them driving down
the narrow Channel.
Right across from France to England there run
the great barriers of mines and netting, held in
place at regular intervals by those little trawlers
and buoys. They open gateways to let the ship-
ping through. The trawlers, with their handful
of men aboard, must needs steam against wind
and tide to keep the anchors from dragging. Can
 CONVOY 171
you see those men aboard lashed hour after hour
by the pitiless wind and icy rain (for there's just
a little deck-house or so for protection) striving ;

to peer through the inky darkness, watching and

guarding lest some enemy craft should break through ?
The mail steamer has put out to sea. She's got
a hundred or so men aboard coining back to Blighty
for their hard-won four days' leave. Every man
wears a life-belt, for an unseen death may strike
hard at any moment.
Into the Channel she cuts way, and the
her
great seas come smashing across her beam, flooding
the decks with a freezing torrent of water. Not a
light is shown. Thick blackness without and within.
And the trawler-men in their sodden, leaden
oilskins and hats toil unceasingly, praying for the
dawn, hauling upon cables that burn the hand with
their links of frozen steel. A drifter patrol passes
and gives a cheery hail. A rocket flashes skyward
somewhere near, and breaks into orange stars.
Suddenly a beam of brilliant light stabs through
the darkness, falls full upon a trawler, blinding the
look-out men. From two sides a queer, muffled,
barking snap of guns, and three high-explosive shells
burst full within a tiny trawler.
Down the line flash after flash, and great crashes
echo sullenly through the storm. German de-
stroyers are out slashing and killing in a Berserk

fury. A switch-on of the searchlight, a salvo of shell,

11
shuddering heave from the fisher-craft as the shells
strike home, and the enemy destroyers are lost in
the darkness, leaving behind a trail of flame, a score
of mangled bodies a bloody shambles of death.
172 THE SEAFARERS
Here and there a miniature dinghy is launched
into the tossing waves, paddled clear by a handful
of survivors as the seas swim over their ship, quench-

ing the fires as she sinks.

Three trawlers will put out no more from the
quay-side. Two score fisher-lads have gone to their
last long rest. Three score, maybe, wives and
womenfolk turn in anguish away from the little
will

port when the rest of the fleet comes home, but —

the mail-steamer warped safely alongside the Folke-
stone pier ;
three more trawlers took the empty
stations in the Patrol and you, little lass from
;

Accrington ; you got your letter all right, didn't

you ?

And you, old comrade of mine. Do you remem-

ber that bitter night in January, 1915, down by
Messines ? Up to your thighs you were in frozen
mud. No " Ritz Hotel
'

dugouts in those days,

were there, old man ? You just had to stick it
somehow. And, by God, you did too. Do you
remember the corporal plumping down the trench
with a big jar ? Just a good tot each. The real
old Navy brand it was. Do you remember how
that tot put a new heart into you ? It saved the
life of your next number,
anyway.
I we thought much about it in
don't believe
those days— where it came from, I mean. Or the
"
fags," or the grub generally. But the good old
Navy not only gave us that topping rum of theirs,
but it jolly well saw that we got it all right. So
wc won't forget the carrier when he comes along
for his Christmas-box. By gum, he deserves it 1
 COMMUNICATIONS
Communications dominate War." —Admiral
"
Mahan.

You may skip this short chapter if you like ; it is

rather dry.

Decided to go on with it ? Very well.

In those three words quoted above has the dis-
tinguished American naval writer summed up the
axiom which lies at the root of all military strategy,
whether by land or sea. And the subject naturally
resolves itself for consideration under four simple
heads :
—
1. For Great Britain :
—
(a) The maintenance of her military com-
munications.
(b) The maintenance of her commerce and
trade.
2. Against Germany :
—
(a) The cutting of enemy military com-
munications.
(b) The stoppage of enemy commerce.
In short, preserving intact our own lines of com-
munication and cutting those of the enemy. 1 (a)
was considered in outline in the previous chapter,
tv
and 2 (a.) under the heading Combat." But
before^ passing on to the two remaining divisions a
173
174 THE SEAFARERS
further reference to the military aspect may suitably
be made.
Germany, like Great Britain, possessed at the
outbreak of overseas colonies * and territory.
War
To preserve those colonies as parts of the respective
empires each Power must necessarily be in a position
to support them effectively if attacked. And that
effective support could only be possible if the par-
ticular Power held the command of the sea, and of
the lines of sea communications, viz. the trade
routes and oversea bases.
As regards the position of Australia and New
Zealand, Lord Kitchener's Memorandum of 1910
to the Governments of those countries is note-
worthy.
" "
It is an axiom," he wrote, held by the British
Government that the Empire's existence depends
primarily upon the maintenance of adequate and
efficient naval forces. As long as this condition
is fulfilled and as long as British superiority at sea

is assured, then it is an accepted principle that no

British dominion can be successfully and perman-

ently conquered by an organised invasion from over-
sea." f
As we know Great Britain secured the command
of the sea at the very beginning of the war, not by
the annihilation of the enemy fleet but by the mere
* Of course Australia and Canada and South Africa and New
"
Zealand should not be termed colonies." I only use the word

in the general sense of overseasmore or less dependent countries.

Lord Kitchener went on to advise the provision of local
f
military forces to deal with a possible invasion as the command
of the sea by Great Britain might not at the outset be wholly
secured.
 COMMUNICATIONS 175
The main German fleet
threat of such destruction.
was thenceforward contained in its own harbours
and rendered impotent so far as all real issues of
the war were concerned. A military blockade was
establishedupon the conditions of the maxim already
quoted,* and his exits to the Atlantic Ocean were
sealed at the Straits of Dover in the south, and
between Norway and the Orkneys in the north.
Now the British Navy never did care very much
about blockades the idea of shutting the enemy
;

"
is entirely foreign to the tradition of attack."
up
So having shut him up the next thing to do was to
try to get him out. Thus the blockade was of such
a character as to give him plenty of room for air and
exercise. f He appeared to wish for neither the one
nor the other.

And here a most important point should be

noted. However the enemy fleet may be dealt
with it is practically to prevent
impossible ever
him from making or to
prevent isolated
raids,
attacks upon shipping. That fact has been evidenced
over and over again in our naval history. For
instance, after the victory of Trafalgar, French
privateers snapped up our merchant-ships by dozens,
even in the Channel. Lord Hawke's victory at
Quiberon Bay was decisive, but that did not prevent
the enemy, almost immediately afterwards, from
capturing transports within actual sight of the
English coast. II'
only our people had been properly
*
That the enemy's communications should he cut at a point
as close as possihlc to liis Ikisc.
I Just as Nelson tried to tempt Villeneuvc out of Cadiz in 18U5-
i76 THE SEAFARERS
enlightened upon that point much trouble and un-
just criticism might have been avoided.
As neither our continuous transport of troops
to France nor the destruction of German commerce
could tempt the enemy out, and all other methods
failing, a stalemate followed. But the enemy
communications were cut at their main base, and
the principal object was achieved. German colonies
were lost to her, and our own communications re-
mained intact, save for isolated raids which could
not affect the main issues.
Thus, whatever happened to our advantage in
the way of military success in any part of the world
— the conquest of Palestine, of German Africa, the
downfall of Turkey, the finale on the Western
—
Front that success was won only because the
Grand Fleet in the North Sea had done, and continued
to do, its ivork.

Similarly it was because the line was not cut

at another base that we experienced all that trouble
with Zeebrugge and Ostend, the jumping-off places
for enemy submarines and aircraft. Why it was
not cut is not my present concern, only make the
I

point by way of illustration. But this much should

be said. Admiral Jellicoe always fully recognised
the grave danger of those enemy bases and the need
for dealing with the enemy submarines, not in the

open seas but within their ports. He worked un-

ceasingly to that end so long as he retained office
at the Admiralty.
It would be interesting to learn how Germany

proposed to send aid to, or otherwise protect, her

 COMMUNICATIONS 177
colonies in thewar which she was preparing. Pre-
sumably the had some brilliant ideas
all-wise Kaiser
on the subject. For Germany possessed no over-
seas bases, with which to link up her communica-
tions. She tried to secure Madeira in 1905 by
bullying Portugal, but luckily Great Britain stood
by her old ally and Germany was compelled to
climb down. With Madeira and the Azores in
German hands as submarine bases the position oi'
Great Britain and of America would have been a
serious one.
For such bases upon the sea-routes are all-

important in modern warfare.

In the old days a
sailing-ship could keep the seas for months at a
time. Nelson, for instance, used to see to it that
his ships carried supplies to last for four or five
months. Nowadays a battleship must needs put
in for fuel every few days or else arrange for taking
it in from another vessel. And you may not over-
load a battleship with fuel or she will lose much of
her fighting trim as Rozhdestvensky, the Russian
;

admiral, found to his cost when he gave battle to

the Japanese in the Tsushima Straits.

With brief outline of the general principle

this
of sea-communications from the military side of
the war — and recalling the illustrations given in
I
devious chapters —we may now turn to the com-
mercial aspect how the Grand
: Fleet strangled
German commerce, and how our Seafarers main-
tained our own.
With a great maritime nation such as ours, and
with a public opinion upon all sea matters so deli-
M
178 THE SEAFARERS
cately poised, it is certain that we must rank the
question of our commerce protection as at least
"
equal in importance to that of seeking out and
destroying the enemy fleet."
The platitude that Britain lives only by means
of the sea is none the less true because it is well-
worn. And
yet it was only because our people
rarely everifremembered it that they constantly
demanded to know what the Navy was doing. And
they rarely remembered it
simply because the
efficiency of the Navy made them forget. And
also because, once again, no organised attempt was
made to enlighten them. With the inevitable result.
During the first two years or so of the War Great
Britain nearly 70 per cent, of her
depended for
food-stuffs upon countries oversea. And that food
was brought to our shores by the merchant seamen,
sometimes under the escort of the Royal Navy,
more frequently without that escort. Although it
was only because the Grand Fleet was paramount
in the North Sea that those imports were possible
at all.

During those two years, during the whole of the

War it is just the exact truth to say that we never
once felt the pinch.
That remark even now may raise a smile. A
couple of years ago it generally evoked some ironical
laughter from my audiences. But it needed but a
few minutes to convince them when a description
of the sufferings of other countries was given.
Of course we went short of luxuries which we ;

soon discovered we could well do without. But

I cannot recall any essential foods for which we had
 COMMUNICATIONS 179
"
to accept substitutes," save butter, and, in place
of that, margarine (which I detest) is well known
to be of good nutritive value.
In Germany, every essential, including articles
" And
of clothing, came to be a substitute." I

always enjoy with grim satisfaction recalling the

remark of a certain once-fat German. On being
told that very soon they would have to come down
'

to eating rats as Paris did in 1870 he replied I :

don't mind eating rats so much, but what I dread

is the time when we shall have to eat rat-substitute."

In short, the grace which was said after dinner

by the little daughter of Admiral Halsey, when he
"
was home one day for a drop o' leaf," should have
been repeated in every home in the country :

"
For what we have received, to the Lord and
the British Navy, we're truly thankful."

But, first, how did we deal with Germany ?

We will give that a chapter to itself.

 The Blockade of Germany
"
Talk about your so-called atrocities which our men are said to
have committed in Belgium," they said to me, " it would be nothing
in comparison with what our men would do in England, and we
women want to be there too."
— Gustav Roeder, of the New York World, upon the State
of Mind of German Women. April, 1915.

It was the mines which began it. What the Inter-

national rules say about them I am not quite sure,
but it is quite certain that a Power may not strew
them about haphazard on the ocean highways with
the chance of their destroying innocent, neutral
ships.
And that is what Germany did to the north of
the Irish Sea within the first two or three months
of the war. I well remember the astonishment and

disgust with which we read the news out in France ;

and we were quite busy enough, too, with the First

Battle of Ypres. Whatever ghastly horrors Germany
might commit on land it was quite seriously imagined
that, with the universal comradeship of the sea, she
would play the straight game on the ocean. How
ludicrous appears now our resentment at that first
symptom of the bloody catalogue of crime which
was to follow.
Well, those mines gave to the British Navy the
first hint of the increasingly stern measures which
would have to be adopted with the enemy if we
would protect ourselves. In those early days the
1 80
 COMMUNICATIONS 181

leading principles law of contraband and

of the
enemy trading were faithfully observed by Great
Britain, and to her detriment. And the principles
may be briefly summed up in this way.
Enemy ships and cargoes therein were liable to
capture and confiscation. A ship might be sunk
outright only after every provision had been made for
the crew and passengers, if it was impossible to take
the ship into port, and in self defence.
Neutral ships were free to enter and leave enemy
ports. If they carried enemy
cargoes still they
"
were free unless that cargo was a contraband of
"
war." And
'

contraband of war was any stuffs

which would be of direct use to the enemy's fighting
forces. If it was stuff which was primarily of use
to the civilian population but which could also be
of use to the fighting forces then it was termed
" "
conditional contraband." And if conditional
in a neutral ship was bound for an
'

contraband
enemy port it was liable to capture.

Either form of contraband which, though invoiced

to a neutral port, could be proved to be destined
for the enemy was liable to capture. Food for the

enemy's civil population was not contraband.

If
it were intended for the fighting forces then it was

contraband. But how was anyone to decide for

whom the food was intended ? So the benefit of
the doubt was usually given —
in the early days.
As the war went on it became obvious that
there is
hardly any commodity in existence which,
in one way or another, may not be of some practical
use to the fighting forces. Cotton, for instance,
which one naturally associates with sheets and
182 THE SEAFARERS
tablecloths, is an important ingredient in munitions.

Copper also. Thus, endless difficulties were created.

And although the general principles of contraband
law are clear enough there have always arisen an
infinite number of questions and debates about their

proper construction. So, at the outset, our blockade

of Germany (such as it was) was bound to evoke

complaints from neutrals, especially America.

The first trouble, I believe, arose about the

copper. Germany wanted copper for her shells
very badly. She had no ships of her own available.
Therefore it had to come in neutrals. But the
neutral ships booked the cargoes to their own neutral
ports. How were we to prove that the cargo was
destined for Well, so far as possible,
Germany ?

Great Britain took —

the risk and the copper.
America protested before 1914 was out.
On January 26, 1915, Germany took a step
ipso facto, did away with
which, all distinction

between her civil population and fighting forces in

the matter of foodstuffs. She announced that all
foodstuffs in Germany would be taken over by the
Government.
Then we knew where we were. Food became
contraband of war. Great Britain might not have
declared it so had it not been for the infamous prac-
tices of the enemy upon the high seas, practices
which daily were becoming more and more unbridled.
On February 18 Germany announced a blockade
of the British Isles, and the north and west coasts
of France. That " all enemy ships found in that
area will be destroyed and neutral vessels may be
 COMMUNICATIONS 183
exposed to danger." Otherwise, an announcement
that ships would be torpedoed at sight because the
attacks could only be made by submarines.
On March 1, 1915, Great Britain replied with
a Declaration which is historic. I quote here the

concluding paragraph, for therein is set forth

the principle of detention, not destruction, which the
Allies thenceforth followed, and of which, in a

moment, an illustration.
I will give
'
The and French Governments will
British
therefore hold themselves free to detain and take
into port ships carrying goods of presumed enemy
destination, ownership or origin. It is not in-
tended to confiscate such vessels or cargoes unless
they would otherwise be liable to condemnation."
At the outbreak of war Germany had 915 ships
on the high seas in different parts of the world. Of
that number within about a fortnight only 158
had returned to their ports the remainder had
;

been captured or had taken refuge in neutral ports.

The Atlantic Ocean contains about 30,000,000
square miles. Within a fortnight of the outbreak
not a single German merchant-ship was sailing within
those waters.
The Pacific Ocean is about 70,000,000. Not a
single German merchant-ship. The Indian Ocean
is about 30,000,000 square miles. Not a German
merchant-ship. In the North Sea of about 250,000
square miles, not a German merchant-ship.
A useful Navy, that of the British !

But the ships of the neutral Powers were very

" "
much alive, and they were all out running con-
1 84 THE SEAFARERS
traband of war. It was a very paying game if the
stuff couldbe got through.
Across the north of the mist-shrouded Isles of
Shetland runs the great ocean highway between
America and Scandinavia. And across that high-
way in never-ending patrol lay the famous Tenth
Cruiser Squadron Rear- Admiral Sir Dudley De
;

Chair commanded it for the first two years of the

war.
Famous ? Aye, famous even in the Royal Navy,
where great deeds are matters of everyday routine.
No glory of battle was theirs save that of the ceaseless
warfare against the arctic seas. No stern fight
against an armed enemy, save that furnished in an
occasional pleasant half-hour with an enemy sub-
marine. Nothing to provide stirring " copy
'

for
the newspapers. Nothing to make a man grip his
neighbour by the arm with " hullo the Navy's!

actually doing some work at last." No. Just

slogging at it day and night. Just helping to beat
—
the Hun. Just carrying on.
I have told of the destroyers and how they fared
in those far northern seas. They were of the Tenth
Squadron. I have spoken with many of their
commanders ;
I have looked into their eyes and
read in their depths something of the story which
their lips would never utter. I have had the
honour of sharing a trifle of the discomfort which
was theirs for weary months on end. One such
expedition I recall when the little vessel pitched and
rolled off the northern coast, drove her
tiny bows
through the headlong seas, made rough weather.
After an eternity of years (as it seemed) she got back
 COMMUNICATIONS 185
" '

into port and I made so bold as to ask the owner

what sort of a cruise he called it. " Damned dirty,"
he replied. And the poor, but would-be brave
I,

landsman was strangely comforted. For I knew

then that it must have been awful, and I had
managed to stick it.

And yet that was but typical of all the tedious

weeks as they passed into months, and the months
into years. The summer, six poor weeks, is all
too short in those northern latitudes and the winter ;

is very, very long. And through it all the ships

of the Squadron went about their business. For
theirs was the duty of examining every ship that
passed upon the highway. And if a ship is run-
ning contraband of war she is not very likely to
come up and knock at the door and ask to be
searched.
A rare game of hide-and-seek some of them made
of it up there amongst the ice-floes and playing
;

" '

I spy in an Arctic fog with loose mines about

is most emphatically not an enjoyable pastime.
But the Seekers had to win every time or they knew
that it meant the killing and maiming of more of
our lads in France. And so they set their teeth
and — carried on.

Strung out across the seas, twenty miles or so

apart, were little isolated units of the squadron.
Destroyers, armed boarding vessels, and the ever-
ready and always-on-the-spot- when-there's-work-to-
be-done trawlers and drifters. No folk on earth, I am
sure, other than the hardy Scots fishermen and
their kin, could have done the work of the Arctic
Patrol in those old fishing- tramps. And yet such —
186 THE SEAFARERS
is the amazing stamina of our race in seafaring —
I know a middle-aged barrister from the Temple
who kept the Orkney seas in a little motor-
launch.
Once the ship was sighted and our own watcher
intouch with her, the rest of the routine was simple.
At least, if you can call it simple trying to board
a vessel in a stormy sea with the possibility of a
big touch-and-go bomb being dropped on your
head, or the unmasking of guns and torpedo tubes,
while doing it.
"
Where bound for ? What cargo ? Your
papers, please. All men on deck, please." And
then a strict search by men who have learned their
business in the light of a very wide experience.
You wouldn't believe, for instance, how innocent
rubber can be made to look nor what an amount
;

of petrol can pass muster as tinned apricots. Coal

bunkers have been known to contain other stuff
besides that useful commodity, and wooden par-
titions have frequently given out a curiously metallic
ring when struck by accident.
" '
If the all clear is given,the ship goes on
her way. If there is any suspicion " Mr. Cran- —
shaw, you will take this ship into port for further
search." And Mr. Cranshaw, with a tiny armed
"
party, proceeds as requisite."
Very simple it all sounds. But multiply that
incident a few thousand times over a wide expanse
of those cruel seas,
from Archangel to mid- Atlantic,
and you get a dim perception of the way in which
the blockade of
Germany was effected. 8,586 ships
were thus intercepted.
 COMMUNICATIONS 187
One cannot trace here the subsequent develop-
ments of the blockade of Germany. Nor indicate
how nearly our Sea Power was betrayed by the
infamous Declaration of London, and other factors.
As the pirates' progress continued, so did popular
opinion become more and more insistent for an ever
stricter tightening of the net. The public agitation
over the cotton question will be fresh in memory.
And the Government was compelled to acquiesce in
the demand.
The passing through to Germany in the early
days of copper, German reservists, and heaven knows
what besides, was, most emphatically, not the fault
of the Navy.
The " well-informed neutrals
'

whose effusions
were constantly published in the Press had been
from the first months of the war how Ger-
telling
many was feeling the pinch. But the years went
by, and still Germany continued to make ever

greater efforts. And so the public grew sceptical

"
about the repeated cry of wolf."
And yet we know now that conditions with the
enemy did indeed go from bad to worse, until
the end was only a matter of time. The blockade
did its work. What Britain never realised was the
will Germany possessed, and the
to endure which
means which the German Government adopted to
translate I hat will into action.
That our people did not feel the hardships which
were endured by the enemy was due wholly to our
Seafarers. It was from no lack ol* effort on Ger-

many's part. Had we been driven to face famine

and all its evils our people would, I know, have
188 THE SEAFARERS
fought it through to the last crust. And at least
one influential enemy journal had no illusions about
that.
"
We have been
promised the starvation of
England remarked
so often," the Arbeiter Zeitung
"
of Vienna in April, 1918, that we have become
suspicious. If Calais fell, and the submarine war
became more effective in consequence, and the
English people had to live as we have been living
for three years, does it follow that England would
"
capitulate ?
And the reply is in the negative.

Nor does one desire here to discuss the moral

aspect of the blockade, itsrights and wrongs. In

this war we have come to see that no longer can
warfare remain a matter of contending armies and
navies. War is now made by entire nations. Every
man, woman, and child in the firing line.
is Cer-
tainly in the future there will be no distinction
between combatants and civilians. That the civil

population did not suffer more in the Great War

was only because the engines of destruction were
not then sufficiently powerful to reach them. But
that time is past. In the next war entire peoples
will be immolated in a vast holocaust. And I
commend this little reminder to those authorities,
our own and our Allies', who are even already dis-
cussing the next war, the rectification of frontiers,
buffer States, and so on. There will be no frontiers.
Nor, in any case, why should a distinction be
made between land and sea warfare ? If an army
may, legitimately I suppose, besiege a city and
 COMMUNICATIONS 189
reduce the population to the direst straits of
famine and pestilence, why may not a navy besiege
an island or a country ? It is only a question of
degree.
Sieges in the old days would last for a year at
a time or longer, with the civil population suffer-
ing the most terrible privations. And if Germany
caused Paris to suffer as it did in 1870, it is mere

hypocrisy for Germans to talk as they did about

the hardships inflicted upon them by the British
blockade.
What would Germany have done to Great Britain
and the world had she beaten down the British
Navy and the Mariners of England ?
 The Bringers of Bread
"
I sec more clearly than ever that all the growth of our wealth
arose from our connections with the British Empire ; England's
harbours, possessions and colonies stood wide open to our sailors
and traders. I have often been astonished at this magnanimity."
—Herr Ballin
(Germany's greatest shipping director).

Far away across the Seven Seas below the borders

of the world the great storehouses of Britain.
lie

There in those distant lands do men and women,

some our kinsfolk, others of alien race, toil that
our people of the Island Kingdom may receive
theirmeats in due season.
Here and there, through the countries and states
of North America, are the mighty granaries for
our bread. Japan holds stores of rice for us. India,
our tea. New
Zealand and Australia, our butter,
cheeses and meat. Brazil, our cocoa, coffee and
sugar. The Argentine, more meat. South Africa,
the wool for our clothing. Persia and the Levant
the dried fruits for our cakes and puddings. Even
our tiny outermost possession, the Falkland Isles,
holds store of whale-oil for us. These, and many
more.
And
ever across the great highways of the Seven
Seas do the big ships and the little ships thrash
to and fro, from your lordly ocean liner to your
littlemerchant tramp. They call at this store-
house and at that, and so over the thousands of
190
 COMMUNICATIONS 191
miles they carry their precious freights that we may
live.
A great fleet, truly, that which served our needs.
Learned folk will tell you how, if ship and ship
were placed end to end, they would reach around
—
the globe or some such fancy. That I do not
know. But this at least is sure. When war came
the ships of Britain's Mercantile Marine were in
number not far below all those of the next nine
shipping countries put together.* And of the men
who manned them more than one-third were
foreigners. f
Then came the War. And My Lords of the
Admiralty spoke with the Merchant Seamen, and
said :

"
The Royal Navy of ships-that-fight has urgent
business in hand. We can do but little for you.
You must look after yourselves."
"
And the Merchant Seamen replied : We have
done so before, and our fathers too, and their fathers
before them in times past. We can do so once
again."
" "
And My Lords smiled approval. Good said !

they. But there is another matter. The needs of

'

the Army and of our good Allies are great. They

will require many ships that the
Royal Navy can-
not give them. We
must take a loan from you ;

we must borrow nearly a half of your ships. $ Can

"
you oblige us ?

* Britisli Mercantile Marine, 11,287 ships. Next nine Powers

(excluding Japanese sailing ships), 1 1,402 ships approx.
t British Seamen, 212,570 Foreign seamen, 79,487.
;

X On May 3rd, I916i Lord Curzon stated that over 43 per cent,
of our shipping had been recpuisitioned for this purpose.
192 THE SEAFARERS
And "
Merchant Seamen replied
the Though :

the people must be fed, yet the Armies and the

Allies must fight that all may live. We will yield
the ships and still will we serve the people's need."
"
'
My Lords smiled once again. Yet," said they,
is there another trifling matter of ships. The
people's needs are great, but the Armies too must
be fed. Shall we say a full total of a half or so
" *
of your shipping ?
"
And the Merchant Seamen
The Armies replied :

must be fed that they may fight. If there is no

other way, then shall you take the full half of our
ships and still will we feed the people."
" "
But," said My Lords, ships are not all the :

ships must be served, and there are troublous times

ahead when the Royal Navy-that-fights will need
ever more and more stout hearts to carry on this
war." f
And once again the Merchant Seamen made
answer "If we may, all of us would gladly strike
:

a blow for this Cause. Yet must a few remain that

all may not starve. Take what you will, and for
us who are left we can but do our best."
And the Merchant Seamen went forth, a little
heavy of heart but smiling proudly, for the task
that had been set them was indeed a mighty one.
But how mighty a one they could not then know.

Over fifty per cent, of their shipping taken.

43 left to do the work of 100. Forty- three precious
ships, of which not one must be thrown away.
*
A further 14 per cent.
t See ante, page 14, for figures of personnel.
 COMMUNICATIONS 193
So thought, so determined three men of the sea,
men of British stock. And their names were Robert
Ferguson, the second mate, Thomas Welch, engineer,
and John Smith, fireman, all of the ocean-going tug
Vigilant.
Afew days out from Newfoundland was the
Vigilant, bound for Ireland. Seventeen men aboard
to take her across. From the first day out the
weather had got steadily worse, until mid-Atlantic
found the little ship battling with one of the worst
early winter storms of late years.
With the coal running short, the crew working
day and night in lifebelts, and with but a poor chance
of saving the ship the skipper sent out the S.O.S.
signals. The wireless was picked up, and next
morning there hove alongside a Dutch-American
liner. The skipper called to his crew to " abandon
ship."
"
I'm not coming," said Ferguson, and he made
his way below.
"
Here, you," said Ferguson to the chief en-
"
gineer, stay on board with me and work her
"
home ?
" Cv
Ye' re a daft fule," said the chief, and I'm
not pitching away my life for the fun o' it."
" " "
You," said Ferguson to a greaser," you
said this morning you weren't a bar-room sailor.
Now show it.
Stay along o' me."
"
And the greaser," who was an Irishman, and
the fireman, who was an American, talked it over.
"
We're with you," said they.
The skipper and his thirteen men clambered
aboard the Dutchman. And the passengers of the
194 THE SEAFARERS
great ship lined up by the rail and gave the three
adventurers a hearty cheer as the Vigilant rolled
away to the trough of the sea.
And there were the three men left to work
a small ship over 800 miles of the storm-tossed
Atlantic.
Twelve dreadful hours of it with seas 30 feet

high climbing over them and a gale of 80 or so

miles an hour raging, when the rudder jammed. A
cruel hour of work upon that, and the ship's dynamo
was knocked out of gear. Three men to work the
ship and repair her !

So Ferguson hove to the ship in the storm, and

somehow or other they mended both steering-
gear and dynamo.
Once again they battled forward. Day after
day they fought their way until, when all seemed
lost ; when, without food or drink save by snatches,
human will could do no more, a homeward-bound
ship sighted and closed the Vigilant.
' '
Will I give ye a line ? hailed a cheery voice.
" "
No, thanks," said Ferguson. She's our ship.
But we'll take a lead from you into Bantry."
So the newcomer led the way for a spell until
she was lost in the twilight. But the
Vigilant held
on, for her men knew now that a few hours would
see them in.
And for those few more hours they set their
teeth and stuck it. And so at last the Vigilant,
torn and battered, but with her little
ensign flaunting
at the mast-head, cleared
Bantry Bay, and made
her port of Castletown.
John Ferguson and Thomas Welch and John
 COMMUNICATIONS 195
Smith had saved £20,000 worth of shipping for the
British Government.
"
And why did you do it ? '

they asked in
England.
' "
Well," said Ferguson, she was a good ship
and a valuable one. Didn't seem good enough to
me that she should be smashed to pieces when she
might be bringing food to the kiddies at home,
or sweeping mines, or carrying munitions. It isn't
for me to say why she was wanted. I only knew
that every ship was needed."
But I should like to know what her former
skipper said about it.

Now in former days, as Herr Ballin has testified,

the ocean highways, the harbours, the very store-
houses of Britain, were all free to those of any nation
that would use them. By blood and tears and
treasure had Britain builded that freedom through-
out the centuries and now, having builded, she gave
that noble edifice to the world.
In every sea, aye even within her own coastal
waters was there that freedom. Germany, or any
other nation, might even anchor outside our Home
ports, embark passengers or cargo, and so evade
the harbour dues levied upon our own ships. Free
to all was our very coasting trade. These and a
score more of gifts. Fools were we ? Perhaps.
That other Powers, not only Germany, should
decline to follow the lead which Britain had given,
should even abuse those principles of freedom this —
was not allowed to concern us. We held upon our
way.
196 THE SEAFARERS
And if any man would seek a definition in a few
words of what Britain means by the term " the
"
Freedom of the Seas he will find it set forth, clear
that all may read, in the Liturgy of the English
Church.
Turn to the Common Prayer and to the
book of
Office there to beused at Sea. Read the first Prayer
"
in that Office with its glorious Invocation, O
Eternal Lord God who alone stretchest out the
Heavens." Read it, partly because it is a noble
piece of writing partly also because it is a Prayer
;

which is enjoined for use on every one of His Majesty's

ships on every morning throughout the year ; and
also because there you will find the definition. It
isa Prayer for the Officers and men of the Royal
Navy, and for the ships they serve :

"
That they may be a safeguard unto our Sove-
reign Lord, King George, and his Dominions, and
a Security for all such as pass on the seas upon their
awful occasions."

That, I suggest, is what we in this country mean

by the Freedom of the Seas. What Germany means
" '

by it the dear old friend God of the Hohenzollerns

alone knows.
Or stay I will tell you one of the things Ger-
!

many means by it.

On a day of June, 1918, a Dutch fishing-smack,

with some ten or eleven Dutch fishermen on board of
her, was at work with her nets down within a North
Sea area which Germany, with exquisite considera-
tion, had guaranteed immune from U-boat attacks.
 COMMUNICATIONS 197
"
A British destroyer passed within hail. There's
a German U-boat at work around
here," called the
" better look out."
commander, you'd
"
That's all right," replied the Dutch skipper,
" We're only fishermen, and
they won't touch us.
neutrals. Besides, these waters are specially guaran-
teed."
" "
Oh, very well," said the commander, have it
your own way. But don't say I didn't tell you."
And he steamed off.
Before the day was over a U-boat broke surface
a few hundred yards away, and, without a word
of warning, opened a heavy fire upon the fishing-
smack, and sank her.
The crew got away in a little boat, and the
U-boat continued to fire upon that. Three men
were killed outright, others were wounded. The
U-boat then submerged without a thought of offer-
ing help.
For twelve hours the little boat, with her dead
and wounded in her, drifted about, water streaming
in through the shell holes. Then she was picked up.
Holland, you observe, is by way of being a
neutral. One
rather friendly to Germany, in fact.
Norway, too, is a neutral. But Germany, just
by way of showing her regard for the rights of a
neutral had, by the middle of 1917, already sunk
4J56Norwegian ships, 382 of them by torpedo.
Denmark ? Oh yes. 114 ships of Denmark were
sunk in the same period. Sweden (a very friendly
neutral?) 101 ships. Within the first two-and-a-half
years of war Germany sank 847 neutral ships, and
murdered a few thousand of their seamen.
198 THE SEAFARERS
So much for Germany's ideas about the Freedom
of the Seas.Is it likely that she was going to treat
our own merchant ships, the bringers of bread, more
leniently ?

Lord Fisher, while at the Admiralty in 1911,

wrote a memorandum in which he urged that when

Germany came to war with Britain she would attack

our merchant ships with submarines. The Govern-
ment laughed at him. If the Government refused
to believe in the inevitable war with
Germany they
were not likely to listen to the further argument.
'
Trade is timid," wrote Admiral Sir Percy
Scott before the war, " it will not need more than
one or two ships sent to the bottom to hold up the
food supply of this country."
Ah ! I thought that little remark would make
you smile. You are remembering the hundreds of
our torpedoed seamen making port after six days
of hell in an open row-boat in the ice and snow of
mid-Atlantic. A little warm food and drink inside
them, a new rig- out of clothing and
"
which is —
the way to the nearest shipping office to sign on
"
for the next ship going out ?
I know one old chap who has been torpedoed
five times. But he made it his boast that for
every time he was torpedoed he sent a German sub-
marine to the bottom. And he did it too.
Never once through the War was a merchant ship
of ours held up in port for want of men to man her.
"
Still will we serve the people's need," said
the Merchant Seamen. And this is the way in
which they did so.
 COMMUNICATIONS 199
The Anglo-Californi an was an unarmed merchant-
ship making for Queenstown on July 4th, 1915.
She had just sighted the Irish coast when a sub-
marine appeared and opened fire. Captain Parslow,
the skipper, was of the same breed as Brennell of
the Avocef, and he, too, had nothing with which to
fight save his splendid seamanship.
Round and round circled the submarine pouring
in shell after shell. So close was she that the enemv
crew could actually use their rifles. And as she
circled so did Parslow ever manoeuvre his ship to
offer the smallest target.
For four mortal hours did the men of the merchant
tramp fight the enemy with their naked fists. Then
one more shell burst upon the steamer's bridge and
Captain Parslow fell, terrible wounds in the head,
an arm and a leg completely severed.
"
Take the wheel, young 'un," he gasped to his
son who was standing by, "I'm done." And so
the gallant spirit passed.
Young Parslow, hurled to the deck by the ex-
plosion, scrambled up again, staggered to the wheel.
On the instant another shell burst, wounded
him, shattered some of the wheel-spokes. But,
with the blood nearly blinding him, young Parslow
held grimly on.
Now the men tried to lower away some of the
boats, falls were all entangled.
but the Hacking
and cutting them more men fell beneath the pitiless
at
hail of lead. At last four boats were lowered and
got away. But ever young Parslow stuck to the
helm ;
and by noon, with friendly ships hurrying
to his help, the submarine, baulked of her prey,
 200 THE SEAFARERS
dived sullenly beneath the water and vanished.
And Parslow brought his ship into Queenstown.

"
Now is all very well," said the Merchant
this
Seamen MytoLords at the Admiralty,
"
but what —
about it ? We can't go on like this. What are you
"
going to do for us ?
" "
Why," said My Lords, this have we done

already. We have banged, barred and bolted the

doors of the storehouses upon the enemy we have ;

swept the seas clear of enemy ships and cruisers for

you. It's only a matter of submarines, and there
can't be many of them. Anyway, we're doing our
best to hunt them down, and you'll have to carry
on somehow."
" "
Yes," said the Seamen, but in the meantime
"
what do you advise ?
So My Lords put their heads together, and
" '

Why not "try steaming zigzag all over the place ?

said they. They can't hit you then with a torpedo."
And the Seamen scratched their heads and went
"
away looking thoughtful. But that's a rotten
game," they said, "we shall lose no end of time over
it. And besides, when we've got a course we like
to stick to it."
But they tried it, nevertheless, and with ex-
cellent results. For a submarine certainly cannot
hit under such conditions, save by a lucky chance.
Yet, since your merchant skipper is a conservative
old chap, many stuck to their courses and so were
caught. And the game went merrily on. But still

the people were fed.

The story of sinkings and murders became one
 COMMUNICATIONS 201
of sheer monotony. The Clan Macfarlane in the
Mediterranean, with a dozen men out of seventy-six
picked up in the last stage of emaciation after nine
days in open boats. The Coquette, where the master
and crew were driven into boats and subsequently
captured (some killed) by Arabs. The North Wales
and Rappahannock, " never heard of again." The
Kildare, shelled to pieces in the Mediterranean, boats
and all. Score upon score of ghastly narratives.
Then Captain Fryatt was captured, and, after a
mockery of a trial, murdered. A second merchant
captain looked to share the same fate.
"
Look here," said the Merchant Seamen to My
"
Lords, this is the limit. They've taken another
and are threatening to kill him, too.
of our skippers,

They've announced that any of our chaps they may

catch will be treated as felons. And here you're
treating their prisoners like honoured guests. You've
damned well got to put your feet down all of 'em." —
So My Lords went off down Whitehall, inter-
viewed the gentlemen of the Foreign Office, and
told them very bluntly that there would be trouble
if they didn't do their obvious duty.

The F.O. listened to reason (it was made to),

and strong reprisals were threatened if a hair of
that merchant skipper's head was harmed. Ger-
many knuckled under, as Germany always does
when threatened with a taste of her own medicine.
" '*

Might i^ the only argument with bullies like that.

"Now," said My Lords to the Seamen, "as you

have done very well for us, we'regoing to give you
a little present."
202 THE SEAFARERS
"
Thank you very much," said the Seamen, re-
membering how their firemen and A.B.s were get-
ting in 1914 the princely sum of £5 10s. a month,
and their skippers about as much as an American
"
fireman. Thank you very much," they said.
"
We can do with it."
" "
Yes," said My Lords. We're going to give
you some nice little guns to fight the submarines
with."
"
"Aha!" laughed the Seamen. Noiv you're
talking."
So they took their little guns on board, and
they steamed to and fro as pleased as so many
" '

Punches. Isn't it me ! they said, as they let

fly at the pirates.
As fine a ship as ever flew the flag of the Mer-
cantile Marine was making for a home port. About
four miles away, in the morning twilight, a sub-
marine was sighted. The enemy opened fire, and
the merchantman promptly replied. Down below
in the engine-room the men were piling up the steam
for a stern chase. The merchantman gradually
hauled away, firing hard as she increased the dis-
tance. The submarine disappeared.
A few hours afterwards, without further warn-
ing, a torpedo struck the ship abaft the engine-room.
Clouds of scalding steam poured from the severed
pipes, but the first engineer went calmly about
his job, opening a safety-valve here, cutting off

steam there.
The crew were ordered away into the boats,
which were towed astern. The skipper and four
engineers remained on board. Then the submarine
 COMMUNICATIONS 203

again appeared, and those five men— the engineers

working in the inferno below— took the ship straight
at the enemy. She evaded the attack.
For an hour that curious fight went on. The
engineers (for this is their story) took it in turns
to creep along a tunnel full of water and steam to
repair injuries,the while the remainder, and the
skipper on the bridge, kept the ship in trim against
the enemy.
Then, just as a British patrol came along, a
great suction pipe in the engine-room choked up.
Unless that were cleared the ship was doomed.
Again and again the first engineer dived into the
water which was flooding the engine-room, but never
could he reach the pipe. So, at last, with the water
up to his neck, he stood and sawed the pipe in half
at the top, and the ship was saved.
In such fashion did the Merchant Seamen bring
the bread to England.
o

What a story is theirs, those Merchant Seamen

of ours How the Golden Age of their endeavour
!

under Elizabeth pales before the splendour of their

achievement in these latter days !

" Trade is "

timid," is it ? Two or three ships
sent to the bottom will hold up the food supply,"
"
will it ? The mere terror of our submarines,"
"
said Germany, has swept the seas clean at
—
one blow" has it? Even the examples of a
thousand years cannot convince some folk.
Within a period of eighteen days in 1917, taken
at random, 6,076 ships of over 100 tons entered
our home ports and 5,873 left them. Nearly 12,000
20 4 THE SEAFARERS
ships in and out in 18 days And this when the
!

submarine blockade was at its height.

On any single day during the War there might
have been found over 1,000 ships steaming or sail-
ing within home waters seas which the Germans
;

with silly arrogance proclaimed as " Verboten."

And how did the Merchant Seamen use the
little guns which
My Lords had generously given
to them ?
Out of a hundred unarmed ships attacked by
submarines, an average of seventy-four have been
sunk. But out of a hundred ships armed with a
single gun, no fewer than seventy to seventy-five
have won
through. My Lords were very wise.
And, by that same token, the Merchant Seamen
handled their guns like long-service ratings.
No one will readily forget the story of the gunners
in the great White Star liner, the Justicia, in July,
1918.
The was off the north of Ireland about
Justicia
half-past two of an afternoon in July, when a tor-
pedo struck the ship by the engine-room. She was
turning for port when two more torpedoes crossed
her bows. The Justicia was attacked not by one
submarine, but by seven some say eight.
;

Through the night that followed the U-boats

left her alone as she slowly steamed for safety.
But with the early morning came the real onslaught.
Two torpedoes struck home simultaneously, one
in the engine-room, the second up forrard. And
then the gunners of the Justicia got busy. They
sank four of the enemy submarines, and actually
hit with shells and exploded two, if not more,
 GOMMUNIGATIOiNS 205
torpedoes as they sped towards the doomed ship.
To hit a torpedo coming toward you at thirty knots !

Never had such astonishing marksmanship been seen

before.
Unfortunately, though, no marksmanship could
save the ship. She foundered some few hours later,
but with a loss of no more than eleven of her crew
out of six hundred odd.

The days passed and ever with their passing

by,
the needs of the Armies and of the Allies grew
greater. Coal and boots and clothing must be
carried to them from England even something of
;

our slender store of grain must we give to France

"
to help feed her people too. Les anglais," said
"
a Paris newspaper, with their hearts of gold,
have behaved in this only as France expected —
like the gentlemen that they are."
For not only must our merchant seamen bring
food to England, but also must they serve the
Allies. For Britain was bearing by far the greatest
—
burden of the war in ships, in finance, in manu-
factures. Bearing it for the common cause.
"
England," said Pitt a hundred odd years ago,
"
has saved herself by her exertions ;
she will, I
trust, save Europe by her example." No false
modesty should forbid us from amending those
"
words to read to-day, She has also saved Europe
by her example."
And always the merchant seamen went about
their business, quietly, sternly. And always the
bestialmadness of the
Germans, intoxicated with
murder and rapine, waxed more uncontrolled until
2o6 THE SEAFARERS
the submarine warfare had degenerated into no
more than a hideous orgy of blood-lapping.
"
Sink and slay without leaving a trace," went
forth the edict from the German War Staff. And,
true to the thousand-year-old instincts of the Ger-
man race, the murderers set about their mission.
What was it Sir Charles Napier said about them
"
in the Napoleonic wars ? From the general of
the Germans down to the smallest drumboy in
their legion, the earth never groaned with such a
set of murdering, infamous villains. They murdered,
robbed, and ill-treated the peasantry wherever they
went." *
The same ever the same.
;

Hospital ships with wounded and dying emigrant ;

ships ships with repatriated prisoners maimed and

;

broken from the horrors of Wittenberg and reprisal

camps all ;
were game to the net. Anything.
Everything. Slay and spare not !

And once again My Lords of the Admiralty spoke

with the Merchant Seamen of England.
" "
The end draws on apace," they said it is ;

the darkest hour before the dawn. Nobly have

you fulfilled your pledge, gloriously have you striven.
Bear but a little while longer. The plans are work-
ing ;
the avengers of blood are afoot. Now will
the Royal Navy protect you as the Navy protected
her merchants in times past. The great battle-
ships of the Grand Fleet shall henceforward escort
you upon your way."
And the Merchant Seamen went forth proudly
* Sir Herbert Maxwell's " Life of Wellington."
 COMMUNICATIONS 207
and steadfastly to bear to the end. And the great
battleships of the Fleet turned from their ceaseless

watching and waiting before the enemy ports, and

shepherded the ships of the merchant seamen upon
their way.*
But here and there did the murderers slip through
the meshes of steel that were fast enclosing them.
And behind them where they passed rolled a wake
of blood.
It was in mid-Atlantic once again that a U-boat
found the little merchant tramp, the Belgian Prince.
She couldn't fight, she couldn't ram, she couldn't
—
run the attack was too sudden. The skipper and
her crew, forty- three souls, surrendered. They were
taken on board the U-boat and lined up on her
hull as she lay awash.
The U-boat commander first of all with axes
smashed up the lifeboats of the Belgian Prince
and pitched the pieces adrift.
He then went down the ranks of the forty-three
men and robbed them of every article of value
—
they possessed pocket-book, purse, watch, com-
pass. Collected and dropped them within the body
of the submarine.
Again he passed down the ranks and took from
them all the life-belts that they carried. All, except
from three men who managed to conceal them
under their kits. Took them and dropped these,
too, within the submarine.
The Commander —Wagcnfiihr was his name, but
it doesn't matter ; his bones have long since rotted
*
Nearly 90,000 merchant vessels were convoyed under British
organisation and of these only 436 were lost.
208 THE SEAFARERS
beneath the sea that he defiled * —the commander
entered the conning-tower and slammed the hatch
down over him.
For an hour and a half the forty-three men
stood upon the deck waiting, wondering.
; Then
the end came. The submarine began to submerge.
I need not go into details. You can picture
the men standing there you can picture the water
;

lapping over their feet rising to their knees. You

can hear them saying —"Oh,
;

well, we're for it"

—
and jumping, as their foothold fell away beneath.
Of those forty-three men the three with the life-
belts got back to the Belgian Prince and were picked

up a few hours later by a patrol. The forty were

drowned. Or rather, they were murdered, if ever
murder was done in this world before.
No. I do not like telling these stories any more
than you like reading them. But I hold that there
isn't a household in this Empire where the facts of
these damnable atrocities should not be driven home
right up to the hilt. And that is why I steel myself
to the writing.
-
15,000 non-combatants, men, women and little
children, has Germany murdered upon the High
Seas. Their blood cries aloud to Heaven for ven-
geance.
And, make no mistake about this, it is the
German people who have done these things. It is
the German people who went mad with joy when
the Lusitania was sunk and struck medals to com-
memorate it who cried aloud against their rulers
;

"
*
The U 44 " with Paul Wagenfixhr and all hands was sunk
about a fortnight after the outrage.
 COMMUNICATIOiNS 209
that the campaign of murder was not nearly com-
prehensive enough.
Remember this, you who speak of Leagues of
Nations and friendship with Germany when Peace
has been signed. As they are so will they be
always until the foul brood is exterminated from
the earth. Certain it is that no decent man or
woman of our race can ever again regard a German
— man or woman —other than with the deepest
horror and loathing.
Oh, I could give you a hundred more such
atrocities tohaunt your dreams. The Addah, where
the U-boat shelled the little boats as they came
down from the davits shelled them as they struck
;

the water ;
shelled them to pieces, and then went
on firing at the men as they swam or floated about
in the water.
Or the Mariston, where the U-boat commander
leaned back in his conning-tower with his glasses
—
to his eyes and laughed as our men were being
devoured by sharks. . .

Q
 The Avengers
"
// is, as Mr. Pitt knows, annihilation that the Country wants,
—
and not merely a splendid victory." Nelson.

Had you passed down the quayside at Granton

by Edinburgh, on a certain March morning of 1918,
you would have noticed, warped alongside, a rather
ungainly, squat-looking steamer. She was no different
from a hundred other such ships on the north-east
coasts, save that she carried on her deck forrard
a useful-looking gun and another one in her stern.
The Commissioner was her name, and she used to
act as watch-dog for the Aberdeen fishing-fleet.
And a merry time did the Commissioner spend over
it. For in her armoury there were no such happy
trifles as depth-charges, wire nets, and other such

aids to the sport of U-boat hunting. It was just

kill or be killed, and the devil take the hindmost.

Now this was the way of the Commissioner.

Upon a summer's day early in the War the
fishing-fleet lay off the sandy shoals of Aberdeen-
shire. Nets were down everywhere, and, upon the
outside edge, lay the Commissioner, nets down too,
seemingly as unsuspicious as her charges.
Awayto the north suddenly there appeared a
submarine. No doubt whether she was friend or
foe, for she began straightway to fire upon a little

fishing-steamer on the outskirts of the fleet.

The steamer, and her name was the Strathearn,
210
 COMMUNICATIONS 211
hauled in her nets in a hurry and started to run
for it. But the shells were coming too close and
too fast for the liking of the crew.
"
Lower away a boat, Geordie," they called to
the skipper.
And the skipper leaned over the bridge-rail to
them and cried :

"I'll see ye in hell furst !

'

And his voice

' '

lashed like a
whip. up Fir-r-re ! he called.
"
Fir-r-re up I think we hae a chance.
! If the
auld ship's gaun doon I'm gaun doon in her."
So they fired up the little old tub, and they
slipped away from the enemy. And as they passed
the Commissioner and gave to her a fair field of
fire a blow of the axe cut away the fishing-nets,

and there was a dainty Hotchkiss gun pointing

straight at the oncoming submarine.
—
Once she fired missed. Twice she fired missed. —
But the third shot got the enemy's bow-gun the ;

fourth smashed her conning-tower and the fifth ;

hulled her and sent her down in flame and burning oil.
And that was the end of that one.

Now an ocean-going submarine is certainly not

an easy craft to deal with. In addition to the points
about them mentioned before* they can operate
at a distance of 300 miles and more from their
bases. And once they get out to sea well, re- —
member those 250,000 square miles in the North
Sea alone, and imagine the task of looking for a
surface ship in that wide expanse, let alone a ship
that goes under the water.
*
Ante, p;igc 1G3.
212 THE SEAFARERS
Then, when you tackle a submarine, the chances
are that she dives promptly, goes to the bottom,
and sits quietly on the ocean bed. There she will
wait until nightfall, to reappear and go on with
her business. And at night a submarine is only
visible at about two hundred yards.
It is very difficult to realise how shallow the
ocean is in many places. And if it is shallow it
means that the submarine can (or rather could)
indulge in her rest cure with perfect equanimity.
The Irish Sea, for instance, where so many of our
ships have been sunk, is very shallow on either
side. So is the Heligoland Bight, both within the
Bight and for quite a radius outside.
Thus aircraft afford the most valuable means
for "spotting" submarines. For, apart from the
wide field of vision, an observer can see below tha
water to a good depth, just as one may see to
the bed of a river by standing on a bridge.
So it was that a dirigible airship of ours, hover-
ing quietly on patrol above a certain part of the
North Sea, spotted a submarine enjoying a little
snooze in its comfortable bed beneath. Another
good look. No, there was no doubt about it. Imme-
diately the regular routine in these matters was
begun.
First, a wireless message from the airship to
the neighbouring destroyer patrol. That brings up
the Destroyer, racing hard, and, lumbering along
behind, four of our old friends, the fishing trawlers.
Another signal from the airship and the De-
stroyer, shutting down steam, cruises slowly within
"
close range, her men at action stations," her guns
 COMMUNICATIONS 213
trained towards the spot where the submarine may
break surface.
Now the trawlers have arrived, and very
methodically they set about their job. Two and
two they lower away a couple of long chain sweeps,
one towards the bows of the submarine, the other
towards her stern. Lowering away, the two pairs
of trawlers gradually close towards each other so
that the sweeps now lie beneath the hull of the
submarine. Then the trawlers cross each other, for
all the world as
"
though they are playing at cat's
cradle," and there you have the submarine fixed.
The grating of the chains against her hull must
have given that U-boat a rude awakening, for the
airship up above wirelessed down that there was
a bit of a struggle going on. She could come up
to the surface any time she wanted to the
"
cat's —
'

cradle arrangement was very sympathetically

—
arranged but she couldn't wriggle out in any
other way.
Well, after wriggling quite a lot, the U-boat
took a breather to sit quiet and think about it.
And the destroyer commander —for
he was a sym-
pathetic soul — time by having a little
filled in the
wireless chat with the skipper of the airship. Oh,
no, they didn't discuss hydroplanes and weather-
gauges and shoals and sharks, as you might imagine.
What the Destroyer wanted to know was whether
Ihe Dirigible had seen the middle page of that week's
La Vie Parisienne, and didn't he think it was rather
phasing?
The Dirigible was able cordially to agree on
that point; then, turning to the business in hand,
2i 4 THE SEAFARERS
askedj"What about it?" And the Destroyer com-
"
mander replied, Yes, what about it ? I think
he's had time enough to come up if he wants
to." (To surrender.)
So the Destroyer talked to the trawlers. And
the trawler-men arranged two beautiful tins of high-
explosive stuff and lowered them gently over the
side, down through the green water to where the
U-boat lay. And the H.E. tins tapped quietly
against the hull. Just a little touch on the shoulder,
as it were, to say 'Time's up." But there came
no answer, no movement.
"
All right. Let him have it," said the De-
stroyer.
The trawler-men pressed a couple of buttons.
A muffled explosion. A great column of water. A
patch of oil that spread and spread, smoothing out
the winding-sheet of yet another killer-of-little-
children.
' "
Eh, lad," said the Berwick trawler-man, 'tis

a verra easy way to catch the fish. But it's awfu'

expensive, ahm thinking, to the Government. Thae
gunpowder will run awa wi' a heap o' siller."

There is only one royal road to the catching

of submarines and Admiral Jellicoe told
that, as
us, is by stopping them from coming out. Thus,
when Lord Jellicoe went to the Admiralty as First
Sea Lord, one of the first things he set about was
the improvement of British mines. Up till then
they had left much to be desired.* Mine-laying
* I am indebted to Mr.
Archibald Hurd for much useful in-
formation upon this subject.
 COMMUNICATIONS 215
was not a science which was much en-
(or art)
" "
couraged in the Royal Navy. Attack is their

principal business, not blocking up an enemy in

his ports.
Nets were very useful at the outset for catching
submarines, but they did not prove a very great
success. So mines had to come. And not only
had the mines to be manufactured upon a prodigious
scale, but the craft and the men to lay them had
to be secured. At the outbreak of the War we
had, I believe, about 150 small craft available
for such odds and ends of work, submarine chasers,
and so on. Within a couple of years or so the
Royal Navy was using over 3,000.
And they must have been quaint, those very first
mines of ours. For the story goes that one evening,
in a thick fog, a fishing lugger bumped heavily
against something or other which the skipper took
to be a buoy, moored there for the guidance of
similar lost souls. So he hitched up alongside
with a cable, bumping against the buoy in friendly
fashion all through the night. The next morn-
ing, when the fog had cleared, the skipper dis-
covered to his consternation (and amusement, I
fancy) that his littlefriend was a terrible British
mine.
However, under the energetic administration of
Admiral Jellicoe and with the co-operation of the
Board of Inventions, presided over by Lord Fisher,
the mines were steadily improved, manufactured,
and well and truly laid. The climax was reached in
May of 1918 by the announcement of the existence
of a new and enormous British minefield, 121,000
2i6 THE SEAFARERS
square miles in extent, entirely blocking the northern
approaches of the North Sea. And here is the plan
of it
(p. 217).
The imagination boggles at the stupendous num-
ber of mines which must have gone to the covering
of those scores of thousands of square miles, and
at the organisation which laid them.
But as the submarines did get out (before the
days of big minefields), they had to be hunted down
in the open seas. And the cunning and skill that
went to the hunting of them makes a story more
fascinating than any romance of Fenimore Cooper's
backwoodsmen and Red Indians.
—
The Devischland the so-called mercantile sub-
—
marine crossed from Hamburg to New York with
—
a cargo of I forget what a few bottles of dye-
;

stuffs or something, and, of course, an autograph

portrait of the God-given Kaiser. There is no room

in a much else.
submarine for
The Royal Navy looked on with interest. A '

" "
new stunt said the Navy.
! We're always ready
to learn things."
The Deutschland went and returned in safety.
'
Great was the jubilation in the Fatherland. So
"
that's all right," said the Fatherland. We've
found a way at last for our good German commerce.
We can go ahead now."
"
So another peaceful submarine," the Leipzig,
set forth upon another peaceful voyage of trading
"
with the idiotic Yankees."
" "
Here," said the Royal Navy, not so much
"
of it !

And Hamburg waited for the return of the good

th» u&rr* cq ii. LORuua
218 THE SEAFARERS
ship Leipzig, and waited — and waited in vain. For,
curiously enough, the Leipzig never returned.
The Navy is wise in these matters, as in most
else. A new route or a new method on the part
of an enemy submarine is carefully charted. When
the enemy repeats the experiment the hounds are
at once upon the trail.* It was most thrilling, as

may be guessed, to watch the course of an enemy

submarine being pricked off upon a chart, almost
from hour to hour the submarine quietly pur-
;

suing her way in blissful ignorance of the attention

she is receiving. The auspicious moment arrives
with the submarine reaching a suitable position
for destruction a wireless call goes forth the
avengers
"
;

proceed as requisite
"
; and —that's that.
;

After the year or so of the War there were

first

very few cases recorded of ordinary humanity on

the part of U-boat commanders towards their vic-
tims. At the beginning of the campaign there
were some instances of decent behaviour decent, —
I mean, for the Germans. The seamen, stranded
in open boats a hundred miles from land, were
sometimes permitted to take some food with them
and perhaps a warm coat or two and a compass.
But after a while such " chivalry " was forbidden.
However, I have come across at least one case
of humanity, and so the incident is worthy of men-
tion.
A tramp steamer had been sunk in the usual
* This was in the earlier
days. Later on, when the Navy
" "
thoroughly grasped the idea of the game, they killed straight
away.
 COMMUNICATIONS 219
way, and the skipper and crew were pulling away
from the scene in the ship's boat. The Germans
were always anxious to get hold of any of our mer-
chant skippers, to make an example of them, and
so, on this occasion the boat was hailed and the

captain ordered on board the U-boat.

The little boat was reluctantly pulled round
and brought alongside the submarine. A few warm
" "
hand-shakes, and good-bye, mate good luck ;
!

and the skipper clambered on board.

"
Down below, schweinhund was the curt
!
'

order, and the skipper hoisted a leg over the edge

of the conning-tower to obey.
Now the circular opening into the bowels of
a submarine is not very big. And it certainly was
"
not big enough for the old man." You see this
particular skipper was what you might term a
"
man of parts." And the " parts were so dis- '

—
tributed that well, he couldn't get through the
opening.
"
Lend a hand below there," called the sub-
marine commander.
So three men below laid a hold on to the skipper's
legs and hauled away. But they couldn't move him
an inch.
Then the Germans on deck had a try they ;

pushed for all they were worth while those below

" "
pulled. But that didn't move the old man
any. He simply couldn't
get his embongpong
through the Then
hatch.the commander came
and sat on his head and although the commander
;

was a pretty big man too even that was no use.

So the Germans reluctantly had to give up the
220 THE SEAFARERS
job. And since, incredible as it may seem, they
actually saw the funny side of it, the U-boat com-
mander ordered the skipper back into the boat and
told him he might go. And the little boat pulled
"
away with the old man '

in the stern and the

seamen doubled up over their oars with cheering
and laughter.

Endless are the stories of the Avengers and how

they strove for the mastery. Every craft that
could float seemed to be drawn into the chase after
the murderers, hunting them down in every sea.
And very few U-boats were out at a time. The
general idea of the public that the seas were swarming
with pirates was hopelessly incorrect. So we really
cannot laugh at the Turks when they imagined that
there were a dozen British submarines operating
in their waters at the time when the E-ll was putting
in some of her best work out there. Fifteen U-boats
at a time in all the Mediterranean and Atlantic was
the estimated maximum.
Kills by destroyers, battleships, depth-charges,
aeroplanes, Allied submarines, gun-fire, steel nets,
mines, and a hundred other ways. The Admiralty
" '
doubtless has in preparation a popular book
dealing with the whole subject. I hope it will be
distributed broadcast by millions of copies, for we
can never hear too much of the deeds of ingenuity
and gallantry performed by the men, the instru-
ments of a righteous vengeance.
Not infrequently a U-boat met its doom as a
result of its own greed. This kind of justice was
not, of course, so satisfactory as summary execution,
 COMMUNICATIONS 221
but as the result was the same there was no cause
for complaint.
This was in the good old days when we had
actively at work an Ally by the name of Russia.
Germany, however, managed with dire effect to
sow seeds of red ruin within her borders, and so the
Ally was lost. However, when we were working
together Britain used to supply her with ammunition
by way of Archangel a traffic which the enemy
;

naturally did their best to stop.

A munition ship of ours was making her way
past the North Cape when
she was torpedoed. The
ship was beginning to sink when the U-boat came
to the surface and closing upon her victim proceeded
to shell her at close range.
Now, if the U-boat had been content with the
effect of the torpedo all would have been well —
for the U-boat. But it chanced that the very first
exploded the greater part of the cargo
shell she fired
of ammunition. And it also chanced that upon
the deck of the ship was a big three-ton motor-lorry.
And the explosion lifted the motor-lorry and hurled
it over the side crashed it straight into the hull
;

of the submarine, and sank her out of hand.

But of all the methods by which justice was

executed none were more remarkable than those
of the "mystery" ships, or
'

Q '-boats. The records

of the officers and men who manned them stand
out even amongst the stories of the imperishable
deeds wrought by the other thousands of our sea-
farers.
1

Briefly, the 'mystery ships were old tramp

 222 THE SEAFARERS
steamers, sailing ships and other such harmless
craft. But they were so altered and arranged
internally to carry a number of heavy guns,
as
torpedo tubes, and the necessary devices of a small
warship. So skilfully, though, were these concealed
about the ship that even naval officers inspecting
could not detect their presence.
One of the ship's funnels, for instance, might do
duty as a periscope, besides carrying on with its own
job. A roll would really be an observ-
of wire hawser
ation post. The stove-pipe in the officers' cabin a
speaking-tube. And there would be concealed pas-
sages all through the ship so that one might go
from one end to the other without appearing on
deck. Incidentally, too, the men would be prac-
tised in the art of rushing
headlong and terror-
stricken over the side in
" "
panic parties.
And if she isn't an old tramp ship then she
probably looks like an or a whale, or Lipton's
Shamrock —any oldiceberg,
II. thing other than what she
really is. In short —
She's the plaything of the Navy, she's the nightmare of the Hun,
She's the wonder and the terror of the Seas,
She's a super-censored secret that eludes the prying sun,
And the unofficial wireless of the breeze ;

She can come and go unseen

By the fore-doomed submarine ;
She's the Mystery Ship, the Q-boat, if you please,

as a seaman poet has put it.

And the men who served on them were some of

the finest in the Navy. (Really, I seem to have
said that so often. But how can one put it ?) And
the officers — well, same again. For the moment
I thought of setting down the names of a few of
 COMMUNICATIONS 223
those officers and men who won the Victoria Cross.
But when every single man earned that decoration
I am sure the lucky recipients (generally chosen by
vote of their comrades) would be the first to protest.
So we However, as most people know,
will leave it.

the name of the leading spirit in the whole scheme

was Gordon Campbell, Captain, R.N. And his name
and his deeds will inspire ballad-writers and story-
tellers for generations to come until name and fame
become one of our Country's proudest Sagas.
In such fashion, then, did the Mystery ships sail
the seas. When the first of them appeared the
U-boat fell a fairly easy prey. But after a little
while the stories of them reached Germany, and
U-boat commanders were on their guard against
innocent-looking colliers. (Perhaps that is one of
the reasons why the really innocent ships were made
to suffer so terribly.) So the fights which took place
towards the close of the war were terrific in their
intensity.
Mystery ships are no new playthings of the
Royal Navy. In fact, I daresay that they are as
old as sea- war fa re itself. Curiously enough one of
the finest of all single-ship actions in the Navy's
previous records was fought by a Mystery ship. It
took place on August 10, 1805. The whole story
i well worth the telling, but just the beginning of
.

it will serve for a comparison with one of Captain

Campbell's adventures.
The British ship was the Phoenix (Captain Baker),
a 30-gun frigate,* with a crew of 245. But she
*
Frigate, a warship next in size and equipment to a linc-of-
battleship.
224 THE SEAFARERS
was so disguised that her thirty-six guns only looked
like twenty, and her general appearance was that
of a little sloop.* She was off the Portuguese coast
on patrol duty, when, one day, she was hailed by
an American trader.
"The very man we want," said Captain Baker;
"
he'll go and talk about us to every French ship
he meets."
So the American skipper was invited on board.
The British officers bought some cases of his claret
and then proceeded to give him a jolly good time.
(The Royal Navy was just as royally hospitable in
those days as it is now.)
After a good dinner and a couple, say, of bottles
" '

of port (America hadn't gone dry in 1805), the

skipper was taken upon a tour of inspection round

the disguised ship. Not much of a craft he found
her, only twenty guns ;
in fact hardly a fighting-

ship at all.
Sure enough, as Captain Baker expected, that
American the next day was talking to the captain
of a French ship, the Didon. And he told the French
captain just what Captain Baker wanted him to.
The Didon was carrying important despatches,
and although she mounted forty guns it was her
duty to avoid a fight. But when the Phoenix hove
—
in sight the very ship the American had told him
—
about the temptation was too great, and the
Frenchman let fly at her.
The Phoenix closed in (very unwillingly, it seemed)
and for quite a while she was terribly knocked about.
At last she secured the position she wanted, and —
*
Sloop, a small one-masted vessel.
 COMMUNICATIONS 225
out came the hidden guns. A great fight followed
and the Phoenix was the victor.

Now we will skip a hundred years and note how

history repeated with Captain Gordon Campbell
itself
and his mystery ship, H.M.S. Dunraven, in the guise
of an ancient collier. And this is the tale of it.

Ona grey August morning of 1917 far out in

mid-Atlantic the dingy-looking collier with her one
little tinygun went limping along at her poor 8 knots.
Little white-capped seas tumbled past her and a
school of porpoises gambolled merrily across her
bows. Peaceful enough it all was, not another
vessel in sight yet not so far away there were
;

doubtless warships at work, patrolling, going about

their duty. Still, our collier was not particularly
concerned with warships for she really was hardly
worth firing at even if a submarine
"
Object, starboard," called the look-out, about
eleven o'clock.
Bythe time the skipper got his glasses to the
'

point the object had disappeared. False alarm,

"
probably," he said, but anyway better zigzag a
bit."
So the collier went on her way zigzagging across
the sea when
;

"
Object, starboard," called the look-out again.
And the words were barely uttered before a shell
whistled across the deck. A submarine had appeared
about 5,000 yards off.

So the little gun was cleared away, the Knsign

was hoisted, and the fire was returned but, oh, so ;

feebly, because it was only a little gun, and the

226 THE SEAFARERS
shells went very short. And the collier turned upon
her course to escape.
On came the submarine. But the collier in

turning to escape must certainly have put something

out of gear for her speed dropped to 7 knots, and
then, alas, to a miserable 6 knots. So the submarine
overhauled her fast, firing as she came. The collier
was in a hopeless position.
Then from the collier's wireless the messages
began to flash for all the world to read.
"
S.O.S. —
—
come quickly pursued by submarine S.O.S." —
The submarine picked up the message and came
on the faster. And now the after part of the collier
was on fire from the enemy's shelling.
"
S.O.S. —
submarine overtaking me S.O.S. am — —
abandoning ship."
And over the side of the poor frightened collier
the panic-stricken crew (or some of them) dropped
a boat, pulling away hard from the doomed ship.
One of the enemy shells, too, must have found
its way into the engine-room, for clouds of steam
went up. Pipes had evidently been severed some-
where.
For an hour and a half had this unequal fight
continued. The dead and dying lay about upon the
decks, which were now beginning to burn fiercely ;

but not a man moved in his agony. And ever closer

came the submarine now only four hundred yards
;

away. Dense clouds of smoke rolled away from

the collier's stern, completely veiling the enemy from
view. And below deck, in the stern, was the collier's
magazine, And above, on deck, was a gun and a
—
gun crew waiting. The smoke ah, that smoke
— !
 COMMUNICATIONS 227
Then, suddenly, another shell from the sub-
marine burst true within the collier's aft-structure,
and with a heart-rending crash that gun and gun
crew were blown into the air. The explosion started
all the electric signals going in the collier, and, on

the moment, screens were dropped everywhere by

the hidden gun crews, and the collier lay revealed
to the submarine for one of the dreaded Mystery
ships.
Only another two hundred yards had the sub-
marine to steam clear of the drifting smoke, and
the Dunraven would have had three guns bearing
at point-blank range.
"
Keep off," signalled Captain Campbell to
"
destroyers waiting over the horizon. Keep off.

This is my game."
"
And the destroyers, like good sportsmen, kept
off."
Now
the Dunraven' s decks were all aflame. The
—
magazine was on fire the flames were licking around
the explosives. But still the gun crews (what were
leftof them) lay by their guns, waiting waiting. —
' '

Over the side went another panic party, but

yet there were a few men left to see it
through.
The submarine, hit several times, had submerged.
Then came a torpedo, smashing abaft the engine-
room, bursting as it struck. With decks red hot,
with cordite burning, detonators, depth charges and
shells exploding everywhere, with wounded men,
maimed and helpless, lying on the decks lying still —
that the enemy might not see them the last
"
panic
—"

party of a dozen men crowded over the side upon a

raft.
228 THE SEAFARERS
The collier lay abandoned. Decks clear, to all
seeming. A drifting derelict. Yet half a dozen
men, Campbell with them, hung grimly on, flames
licking about them, the good ship slowly sinking
beneath them.
" "
Keep off ! This is my game !

An eternity of sixty minutes passed, while the

submarine slowly circled, submerged, around the
ship,eyeing her through the periscope. Campbell
and his men lay still as death. The fires blazed,
scorching their very clothing. Yet there may come
a chance !

The submarine came up astern. Opened fire.

Shelled madly for twenty minutes. Not a sign of
life from the ship.
Then Campbell took a chance and fired a tor-
pedo. It missed by inches.
The submarine crossed the bows of the Dunraven
and steamed down the other side.
Campbell fired a second torpedo. It missed
again. But the enemy saw it. Knew now there
were desperate men on board.
still

The wireless crackled once more — in code. The

destroyers heard.
"
All you can lay in," called the Destroyers to
"
their engine-rooms ;
smash the ship, but get
there."
But Campbell saw it through. After eight hours
of waiting his last gun got a bearing upon the sub-
marine, and as the destroyers hurried to the scene
and opened upon the enemy, a shell of his burst
fair and true. The U-boat heaved up her bows,
gave one great shudder, and sank.
 COMMUNICATIONS 229
And the good old collier ? The destroyers
gathered in her dead and wounded,but the ship
they could not save. The Dunraven had fought her
last fight. As with the little Revenge of glorious
memory, the storm-wind and the Atlantic rollers
called to her, and she sank, with her little White
Ensign fluttering proudly at the mast-head until
the end.
 The Mine-Sweepers
"
The maritime power of England is not the wayward child of an
absolute monarch who determines to be potent on every element : it
is the slow, natural growth, which has stood
many a fierce attack and
weathered many a storm." —
Mirabeau.
"
Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook ?
"
or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down ?

says the writer of the Book of Job.

"
Canst thou put an hook into his nose ? or
"
bore his jaw through with a thorn ?
Aye, old writer, the wonders past thy belief
have indeed been performed by the Seamen of a
race undreamed-of in those far-off days of thy
imagining. The leviathan of thy picture has in
these latter days become a vivid reality and yet ;

were the Seamen unafraid.

Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out.
Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or cauldron.
The flakes of his flesh are joined together ; they are firm in them-
selves they cannot be moved.
;

He maketh the deep to boil like a pot : lie maketh the sea like a
pot of ointment.

Unarmed, unafraid, recking nothing of the cost,

did the Seamen of Britain set forth to do battle
with this new, fearsome denizen of the ocean the —
deep-sea mines that Germany had laid.
With a skill and ingenuity which surely could
not be surpassed did Germany scatter broadcast
over the seas her devil's spawn. Over against every
230
 COMMUNICATIONS 231
harbour of ours and the Allies ; across the ocean
all

highways common to all peoples going about their

" "
lawful occasions ;
down the Mediterranean, up
the Adriatic, in the Indian Ocean, north of the
Australasian coasts, round the Cape of Good Hope ;

in every piece where ships might pass

of water
there were found the high exolosive mines of Ger-
many.
And wherever they were laid there also were
they gathered in and destroyed. And as the British
Navy was the rock upon which the Allied navies
of Japan, France, Italy, and America builded, so
was it the Seafarers of our Islands who gave the
most to this most hazardous work.
And the mines themselves — how can one tell of
the deadly peril of them
Of those great cylindrical
?

cases crammed with the most powerful explosive

that detonates almost to the touch. The folk of
Ramsgate not easily forget the monster that
will

exploded coast in February, 1919, for that

off their
one mine shook the town to its very foundations.
They may, for instance, lie moored
carefully
in a certain spot and partly above the water.
visible
Or moored well below the surface and invisible.
They may explode them
directly a vessel strikes ;

or the contact of the ship's bows may serve to

start a mechanism which will explode the mine
some seconds later when the body of the ship is well
over it. (The horrible ingenuity of it !)

Or, again, mines may be laid on the bed of the

ocean to rise to the surface an hour, two hours,
twenty-lour hours later, timed just as one times
an alarum clock. Or they may be set just to drift
232 THE SEAFARERS
with the sea currents, drifting anywhere and every-
—
where against the Ramsgate shore or the Black-
pool piers. Sometimes they have a projecting horn
or horns which serve as detonators sometimes these
;

are lacking.
*&•

And varied are the methods of laying

just as
them. In no department of German activity has
more subtlety, cunning, and engineering skill been
exhibited than in this brutal business. In this the
"
Royal Navy must, I think, give them best."
In fact, so far as I know, our own mine-layers have
not attempted to compete. Some of the most
delicate of our own mine-laying work was carried
out, as I have
told, by destroyer flotillas. We have
had no shipping on the high seas to destroy. And
if we had, the Royal Navy adopts other methods.

To take one system only, and a very common

one, adopted by the enemy. Imagine a couple of
trawlers sweeping with the slack stretched across
between them. You picture them steaming slowly
along, sometimes hauling up a mine, sometimes not.
But, as they pass, a couple of hundred yards be-
hind them, crawling along the ocean bed, there
steals a German submarine laying other mines.
The trawlers may finish that little stretch of patrol
water and reasonably report it as clear. But
It is quite impossible to give any idea at all

of the enormous work which was involved in keep-

ing the fairways clear. It is hard enough to imagine
the task in one single piece of water like the Firth
of Forth some definite stretch of water with
—
;

boundaries. When you multiply that by but you

 COMMUNICATIONS 233
cannot multiply it. We are dealing with all the
seas of the globe, save the Pacific Ocean, perhaps.
I have not heard of any mines out there. Next
time you take a trip from Blackpool to the Isle of
Man, or from the Thames mouth to Margate, just
imagine the task of keeping that piece of water
clean. —
The whole it is beyond imagination.
Then you may make your trip on a calm day
when the sea is like a mill-pond. Imagine the
sweeping then. Quite simple, you say. But what
of those clockwork mines coming up from the J.

bottom of the ocean ?

Picture the sweeping when the seas are getting
up, when the weather is dirty. Those little fishing
steamers, trumpery little tubs beside your pleasure
craft, being hoisted up on the crests of the waves ;

dashed down into the ocean valleys possibly straight

upon the top of a half-submerged mine.
But I might go on writing through a ream of
paper and get no nearer to the mark of adequate
description. As Ruskin (I think it was) said, he
got a far better idea of the beauties of Windermere
and the Lake District from a shilling book of photo-
graphs than from all the writings of Wordsworth
and the Lake Poets. And so this is one of the
very few phases of sea life during the War in which
a kinematograph is of real use. On the film you
may see the routine of mine-sweeping being carried
on, and the exploding of the mines.
Y'i the film can only give ordinary isolated
incidents; it cannot suggest the vast extent of
the work. The perils of mines drifting amidst the
floating ice and Arctic fogs off the coast of Lapland.
234 THE SEAFARERS
The ingenious disguises of them moored to floating

spars, or beneath upturned, floating row-boats, or

to a short, slender mast that looks like the periscope
of a submarine. (More than one ship, sighting such
a mast, has steamed full at it to ram the submarine
which she imagined lay beneath.) At least one
ship of ours has been mined off the coast of Queens-
land and it was a mine off the South African coast
;

that evoked that fine display of discipline from

Colonel John Ward's Labour Battalion in the Tyn-
dareus, discipline that rivalled the immortal heroism
of the men on the Birkenhead*
And what of the men who faced and fought
these perils ? Not for Britain alone, nor for the
Allies, but for the neutral states as well. Indeed,
when the reckoning is made up it is the neutral
states f who stand almost as heavily in the debt
of them as we do ourselves.
What of the men ? Impressed, doubtless, to
do this hazardous task, or set to it by way of punish-
ment. Oh, no. Volunteers all there are no ;

" "
pressed men or conscripts in the British Navy
" '

nowadays. Volunteers, were they ? you say.

"
Then they were doubtless chosen from the Navy
for their skill." No. They were not in the Royal
a
Navy at all nor, probably, had they ever seen
;

mine in their lives before.

" "
Then," say you, they were doubtless out-

* tradition of an Island Race once again.

The
"
t There arc no such things as neutral nations. If a nation
refuses to he enrolled for Civilisation then it is fighting by the side
of the obscene Horror which has plunged Europe into this carnival
of blood and misery."—" Retreat from Mons."
 COMMUNICATIONS 235
of-work men. But it must have been splendid pay
that induced them to take on the job."
Oh dear no. They were very much in-work
men, and earning very good money. And the
" '

splendid pay which induced them to throw

over their good earnings was two shillings or two
shillings and sixpence or three shillings a day.
No. The pay was nothing. The world does
not contain the gold that could buy the services,
the unwearied devotion, the self-sacrifice, the un-
dying heroism of the Mine-Sweepers, the deep-sea
fishermen of Britain. There was but one thing
that could purchase these things, the Call of their
Motherland.
And so they came.

A many years ago, so the story runs, there was

a man of Exmouth in Devon, one Master Richard
Whitbourne. He was the Commodore of Queen
Elizabeth's Newfoundland in the
Fishing Fleet of
New World. To him and and his men
his captains
as they fished the Newfoundland Banks there came
the news that the Spaniard fitted out a great armada
of ships to sail against England.
The Commodore gathered his captains and men
together and with his own great ship in the van led
the Newfoundland Fishing Fleet across the Atlantic.
Into the Narrow Seas he led them, straight to Sir
Francis Drake off Plymouth, and reported.
' "
Sir," said the Commodore, we have come
to fight the Spaniard."
And on the morning of the next day the Spaniard
hove in sight.
236 THE SEAFARERS
Then when the business was ended, and the
Don had been chased merrily into the northern
mists, the Commodore gathered together once more
his men and led them back to their fishing off

Newfoundland.
Three hundred odd years later there came to
the Newfoundland Fishing Fleet the news that the
German was fighting with Britain.
So the Commodore of the Fleet gathered his
men and ships together and led them across the
Atlantic as Master Richard Whitbourne had done.
Into the Arctic seas he led them, to where Sir Dudley
De Chair held watch and ward with his squadron
off the Shetlands.
" "
Sir," said the Commodore, we have come to
fight the Hun."
And when that business, too, was ended, and
the seas were clean again, the Newfoundland Fishing
Fleet returned as it had come.
I have no words in which to write of this love
and loyalty of those men and their kind.
; Only
the silence of tears.

They are just simple fishermen, these Mine-

Sweepers. And when the Call came they turned
out as one man from every fishing-port and village
of Britain's coastline. In peace-time they kept
the seas in all weathers, summer and winter, storm
and sunshine. There is nothing of seamanship that
they have to learn, for they know every wave in
"
the Channel not merely as passing acquaintances
but addressing them by their Christian names."
But iu war-time they had to bring their unrivalled
 COMMUNICATIONS 237
craftsmanship to bear not only against the devices
of God, but against the wiles of the Devil.
God-fearing men are most of them, as those men
must ever be who go down to the sea in ships and
behold the wonders of the Lord in great waters.
But, in battle, they are stern and relentless, fighting
as Cromwell's Ironsides with a sword in one hand
and a Bible in the other.
An old Scots trawler skipper leaned over the
side of his vessel and looked placidly at a thin stream
of slowly to the surface. A depth-charge
oil rising

of his had closed the account of an enemy sub-

marine. In his right hand the skipper held a Bible,
his finger marking the place of the Book of Joshua.
"
'Tis a braw fighting book, the Book of Joshua,"
"
he remarked. Yon men of Israel were braw fight-
ing laddies wi' bow and spear." And he returned
calmly to his watching.
"
What are you thinking about, Davie ?
'

they
asked him.
'
Ahm he answered slowly,
thinking," that
'

it'll be just aboot

twenty minutes before the De'il
gets him."

For not only did the trawler-men have to fight

the mill's, but, on occasion, enemy ships as well,
submarines and surface-craft. Some of these stories
I have already told. Like the destroyers they
turned with zest to any job that came along in the
course of the ordinary routine.
And it is curious how quickly they imbibed the
Navy tradition in little things; the big tradition
was already theirs. It was just the same with the
238 THE SEAFARERS
men of the New
Armies, picking up the habits and
customs of the old " Regulars." And the trawler-
skippers picked up the Navy habit of a naive brevity
and unconscious humour in the making of official
reports. What R.N. officer, for instance, ever
made a more delicious comment upon an incident
than that made by a certain trawler-skipper when
reporting upon the misadventure
of a sea-plane ?
Owing to engine-trouble the sea-plane had dived
down to a pair of trawlers engaged in sweeping, and
had asked for a tow. Barely had the request been
made when four great mines exploded one after the
other, bumping the sea-plane and trawlers about
with the wash but doing no actual damage.
" "
This sea-plane," wrote the skipper, must
have experienced an
entirely novel and
unique
sensation." And wager that old fellow chuckled
I'll

to himself as laboriously he penned the words.

Always, you observe, this saving grace of humour ;

the all-in-t he-day's- work outlook upon hardship and

danger. And even mine-sweeping was not wholly
devoid of its humorous side although one may well
guess that the funny side was not always visible at
the moment.
A pair of trawlers had been at sea for nearly a
week on their duty, and had not been spending a
very happy time. They were on their way back to
port when a particularly ugly-looking mine with
two projecting horns was sighted. The trawlers very
" "
carefully fetched a
compass round about the
monster, but the seas were too rough to get the
' '

sweep properly to work. Then they tried ex-

ploding it by rifle fire, but either the marksmen
 COMMUNICATIONS 239
couldn't hit it or else the bullets could not find a
vital spot.
At last aftera couple of hours' hard work they
Sfothold of the mine with the
"
sweep
"
and then —
discovered to their that it was only
they disgust
a dead cow after all.

The trawlers, you must know, generally worked

in flotillas of six, under the command of an officer
of the R.N.R. or the R.N.V.R. It was in that

capacity that there served so many of those retired

R.N. senior officers men like Admiral Startin.
;

There was an occasion when two trawlers, towing

" '

the sweep between them, exploded a couple of

" '
mines. The explosion cut the sweep and one
trawler began to haul in the slack of the broken
wire. As it was hauled in over the roller a mine
came up with it entangled in the wire and just ;

under the water the men could see a second mine

also entangled.
Now
the ship was rolling to the swell of the sea
and at any moment the roll might explode the mine,
or both of them, and send vessel and crew to eternity.
The skipper did the only thing possible and ordered
"
the crew to abandon ship."
With the men safely off the skipper reported
to the Commodore of the flotilla.

The Commodore at once called for a volunteer.

Needless l<> man round stepped forward.
say every
The Commodore and liis picked man were then put
alongside the abandoned trawler; they boarded
her, and then set steadily to work to cut the wire
with the mines still entangled in it. They cut it,
240 THE SEAFARERS
and the mines fell clear. These were afterwards
exploded.
Observe, if you please, that those two men went
calmly to almost certain death. There was no need
for them to do it— certainly not the Commodore ;

the vessel itself was of value, and there were

little

no lives to be saved. But — was the Tradition of

it

the Sea Service ; and the example of initiative,

resource and fearlessness -
hich the Commodore set
to the men under his command was no more than
the duty which the British Navy enjoins.
It is by a hundred such deeds performed each

day that passes that the British Navy moves and

has its being. For one incident such as I have
narrated there are a thousand like it which will go
for ever unrecorded. the day's work.
They are all in

And because they are of the everyday routine the

British Navy is the glory of the British Empire and
of Civilisation.
And Germany seriously imagined she could
successfully challenge its power by building war-
ships !

"
The Grand Fleet," said Admiral Jellicoe upon
"
one occasion, could not exist without the trawlers."
So, besides keeping the fairways of the ocean
clear for all ships now we find that the Grand Fleet
itself depended for its very life upon the fishermen.
For is it realised, I wonder, that never a warship
of ours could put to sea, from Scapa, from Harwich,
from the Firth of Forth, until the mine-sweepers
" "
had reported all clear ? Yet it was so. And

you may be certain that the enemy paid very special

 COMMUNICATIONS 241
attention to the several Fleet bases, and exercised
all his ingenuity upon their exits and entrances.

And one day in Scapa Flow, when there was an

alarm that an enemy submarine had got in, the
little trawlers ranged themselves alongside the
battleships to protect their big sisters (so well as
they could) against a torpedo attack.
"
Come inside," said the Battleships to the men
"
of the trawlers and drifters. Come inside or you'll
be hurt."
" "
No, thank the trawler-men,
'ce," said we like
our little ships, and we'll just stick to 'em."
Then it was the mine-sweepers who encountered
and reported what I always regard as one of the
most horrible infamies in all the long catalogue of
which Germany was guilty. The deliberate mooring
of special mines across the track of the Dutch ships
which were bringing our repatriated prisoners of war
back to England. Dutch ships, mark you and ;

the course which they were to take had been agreed

upon by the British and German Governments.
You had forgotten all about that little incident,
I expect. Well, one can hardly be expected to
remember more than a very few of those hellish
deeds of Germany's.

I look back adown the long gallery of portraits

of Britain's Seafarers in this late War. I pause here
at the picture of a submarine commander, there at
the ship's company of a destroyer; the staff of an
engine-roonij a naval surgeon or two, the men of
the "black squad," the Merchant Service— all thai
most gallant assembly. But always and ever I
Q
242 THE SEAFARERS
return to the pictures of the fishermen who swept
the mines.
If one confidently asserts what the world knows
to be the precise truth that it was the British Navy
which saved then I say that it was the
Civilisation,
Mine-Sweepers who saved the British Navy. And
" "
always when I say the British Navy I mean the
four estates of it.

was the manifest duty of our warships to

It
avoid a minefield. It was equally the duty of the
mine-sweepers to seek it out.
Those men, peaceful citizens, took their lives in
their hands and steadily looked death in the face
every hour of the day and night when on the seas.
Their ships were not built to fight they were un-
;

armed save now and again for a little six-pounder

gun in the bows.
It is easy enough to offer one's
life not always so easy to give one's
for a cause ;

money. Those men offered both. They served for

the merest pittance of pay. But never once in the
four years did they request, much less demand,
more. Their work was practically unknown to the
general public, its value was therefore unrecognised.

They sought no recognition. Their portraits did

not even appear in the illustrated papers. They
did their duty, and, of their bounty, they added a
hundred per cent.
" '
It is impossible," said Admiral Jellicoe, to
reward adequately the services of the officers and
men of the trawler fleet, because if one attempted
to bestow a sufficient number of decorations I do
not suppose anybody would go undecorated."
That was the tribute of a great seaman, and the
 COMMUNICATIONS 243
Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Fleet. It was
the reasoned judgment of a comrade of the Sea
Service. It is the last word.
I have said it before and I say it once again.
You who read may to-night go down upon your
knees and humbly thank the Great Disposer of the
Universe for that He gave to you and to your country
such men as the fishermen of Britain to keep you
safely, to feed you and to clothe you. You, and
Britain, owe to those men everything.

So must I close the writing of this brief chronicle.

I have not begun to tell what the British Navy did
in the Great War. I have but touched upon the

fringes of the story. For the story is the record of

sea service of some 650,000 mariners of ours, and
all of them volunteers.
I have said little or
nothing of the engineering
staffs of the ships
— out of sight, they are, I am
afraid, too often out of mind. And yet their gallantry
was that of the man who has to work always unarmed
in face of deadly peril. So, too, the stokers of the
great and little ships. I have said nothing of the

Royal Marines, a regiment with the most famous

and the oldest, I believe, of any regiment
traditions
in the Service.
What, too, of the Boy Sea Scouts ? The Boy
Scouts have been amongst the most inspiring and
popular workers in all our War Service. But the
Sea Service branch of the organisation is prac-
tically unknown. And yet there have been no fewer
than 25,000 of those splendid youngsters at work
244 THE SEAFARERS
round our coasts ; many, too, serving afloat in the
patrols.
have not mentioned the Admiralty Salvage
I

Corps in their raising of sunken ships, performing

that which a year or so ago the sailorman would
have deemed a miracle. Nor have I spoken of the
Navy-that-flies designedly, perhaps, for that is
;

of another element. For every story that I have

told of gallantry and humour and self-sacrifice and
love and devotion there arc a thousand more.
All that I have sought to do is to reveal a little

of the spirit of our Seafarers the human element

; ;

the man behind the gun.

For it was not those great grey ships hidden
within the Northern Mists that Germany challenged
and dared to face. Not the great 18-inch guns
in them, nor the men who manned them. It was
a something beyond our own, beyond Germany's
imagining. A mighty spiritual force. The Soul
of an Island Race.
And Germany failed, as we knew that she must
fail.

For the Mariners of England

of the —
spirit
do you who have seen the issue need the assurance ? —
the spirit of them has been as great in these four weary
years of watch as it was when Nelson sailed down
the Mediterranean and fought and won the Battle
of the Nile ;
at the very moment when, in the streets
of London, they were asking each other, "What is
"
this Nelson of yours doing ?
It has been as fine as on the day when Hawke
sailed into Quiberon Bay in a howling gale on a
lee shore and forced the French Fleet to fight and
 COMMUNICATIONS 245
beat them "all ends up"; at the very moment when
in Smithfield, London, they were burning Hawke
in effigy because he wasn't doing his job.
It has been as fine as when Grenville lay in the
little
Revenge with the Spanish Fleet round him in
a ring and fought them to a standstill.
Grenville and the Revenge ! Drake and Devon !

Devon, the cradle of our Seafaring Race. Ever do

you call to us, your sons, as England does to you.
For I sat upon a Devon cliff upon a summer's
morning. And faintly to my ears across the Channel
seas came the ceaseless muttering of the guns in
Flanders. And I turned to an old Devon man near
by my'
side.
The guns are pretty busy this morning," I
said.
" ' "
Guns ! he said, with fine scorn. Guns !

They'm bean't no guns.

They tapping be —the o'

Drake's Drum. Frankie Drake, he be out and up

the Channel again same as he were before."
Aye, old man, you were right. Eternally right.
England had called upon the Admiral in her need
and he has answered just as he swore that he would.
Call f)im on tlic ticey Sfa, Call \)im up tfir j^ounH,
Call f)im luljfii jjc gail to meet
foe; tf)r

92iftfjm tlic olti (TraUc's plain' %\C tfje oHi jflag flwin'.
tH)t}) f)nbf founD fjini, tuarr an' luafein'. 3<s tftcy founlr
l)im long ago !
AUTHOR'S NOTE
 AUTHOR'S NOTE
Few people read Navy books fewer si ill buy tbem
;
—
except sea fiction, which is always popular. Thus I
am under no illusions about the present volume. Why,
"
then, add to the list of unwanteds " ? Well, there
are several reasons, and they seem — to me, at least —
fairly sound. But first let me explain the genesis of
the book.
The subject of Britain's Sea Service is one with which
I have been actively concerned for a dozen years past.
So it was one of the first topics with which I dealt in
my causeries on the Western Front, September, 1914.
It was always the most popular subject with the troops,
that and the story of the rise of the German Empire.
Returning from France in the summer of 1915, I
discovered, to my amazement, that the Government
had taken no steps to organise a comprehensive scheme
throughout the country of Enlightenment in War Facts
and Ideas. Further, that the public was being left in
almost total ignorance about the work of the Navy and
the Sea Services. As regards the first, I have referred
in he
I
"
Marne " volume to the action taken. The scheme
embraced plans for enlightenment by" the Drama, music,
"
kinematography,
literature, pictures, popular lectures,
etc.,and the training of men and women in enlightenment
work. The result was such as I might have anticipated.
Only in those days I foolishly imagined that we were
out to win the War at the earliest moment, and that
everything that conduced to that end would immediately
be welcomed. Like many another, I had to suffer dis-
illusionment, although, naturally, that made no differ-
ence.
As regards the second point, that of Ihc Sea Service,
1 decided that, so far as lay in my power, all that foolish
" " of the
nonsense ahout the silence Navy had got to
be slopped. So. starting in a very small way (I was
hard at work helping to train men and horses for the
B.A.) Willi local recitals and chats" on the work of
the Navy, together with recitals upon all sort', of War
249
 250 AUTHOR'S NOTE
"
topics, the Old Army," etc., recruiting appeals and the
like,the scheme gradually developed until, by Christ-
mas, 1918, I had given no fewer than three hundred
"
performances of this Navy recital alone The Mariners
:

of England," as I called it.

This volume, "The Seafarers," is founded upon that
Recital. Very much elaborated, of course, and adapted.
For that which tells in the spoken word will rarely " carry "
in a book. Most of the colloquial remarks have neces-
sarily been deleted. For instance, on page 207, the
Belgian Prince episode. In print you cannot say " Wagen-
:

fiihr was his name. But it doesn't matter. He has gone

to Hell long since." It is merely vulgar. But on the
stage," with the audience tense with emotion and horror,
"
the aside brought always a cheer of passionate
relief. Probably about an eighth of the book, if so much,
formed the matter for the Recital, but the sequence^ of
construction of book and Recital is identical.

Speech v. Literature

From certain points of view this book is undoubtedly

a mistake. I recognise that fully. In these stories of
the sea, with their inevitable lack of variety, one needs
the warmth and colour of the voice, the facial expression,
the dramatic gesture, the elocution to carry conviction.
And here I would remark that the most potent method
of bringing home to the Public the meaning and achieve-
ment of the British Navy is by the spoken word. Lantern
slides and the Kinema, under present conditions of pro-
duction, cannot convince. Indeed, I found even good
slides a distinct handicap, and so I soon ceased to use
them.
A
certain type of book is useful ; but I am speaking
of the big general public. The great majority, who would
as soon think of reading a
" "
Navy article in a newspaper
as of tackling the money-market column in a financial
journal.
Oneof the chief obstacles, so far as the average lay-
man concerned, to the enjoyment of sea books is the
is
sea language in which they must to some extent be
"
written. What is the use of saying that a ship is making
"
eight knots ? Unless you explain the meaning by a
footnote, Mr. John Citizen has not the faintest idea what
you are telling him. Even now I can never remember
" " " "
the difference between port and starboard with-
 AUTHOR'S NOTE 251
" "
out recalling that port has the same number of letters
"
as left." yet I wonder whether it is noticed how
And
many" nautical terms are ordinary figures" "
of speech with
us.
"
Another shot left in the locker
" " " making head-
;

way ;
taken aback ; having the wind taken out of
" and so forth. Well, I have tried to "steer a
your sails ;

middle course," and have added footnotes where advisable.

Controversy Deprecated
Ifanyone looks to find in this volume any matter
for controversy he will be disappointed, or at least, I
sincerely hope so. I do not believe in initiating such
matters where the Royal Navy is concerned. It does
a deal of harm. Where it is a matter of general adminis-
tration in which the public is properly concerned, that
is another matter. But to take any part in dividing
the Royal Navy into two camps (which is Irish), and,
as a layman, discussing whether senior naval officers
are right or wrong, that I strongly deprecate and would
most certainly avoid. I cannot see how any civilian
is in a position to pass judgment.
I have written of the shortage of destroyers and the
lack of defences at Scapa Flow. But that is a matter
of public concern with its Naval Administration and
Government. As a matter of fact, I have spoken of
the shortage of destroyers since 1915, and I am quite
sure that Admiral Beresford must have urged the point
long before the War. The knowledge about our non-
defended bases has surely been public property for quite
a while, although I have never mentioned this in public.
Certainly there was much discussion in pre-war days
about our lack of docks and bases. I have therefore
been greatly surprised to find that Admiral Jellicoe's
revelations have caused so great a sensation. Really,
our public ignorance about the Navy is amazing.
"
And a propos of Admiral Jellicoe's book, The Grand
Fleet, ", and in view of possible comment, it is only fair to
my own work to state that "The Seafarers" was written,
and the script in lie hands of the Publishers, before the
t

publication of the Admiral's volume.

Bricks without Straw

To bequite honest, I do not believe that I could have

"
written " Seafarers at all had I first read Lord Jellicoe's
252 AUTHOR'S NOTE
book. The facts about the destroyers,
Scapa Flow, the
battleships, the were naturally within my
star-shells,
knowledge from my work with the Navy. But somehow
I think that I must have missed the
significance of the
facts. I had quite got into the
Navy way of regarding
these defects as " all in the day's work." The routine
—
of making bricks without straw if you take my
meaning.
Just as it was with our shell shortage in Flanders in
November, 1914. One never talked of these things
outside the Navy. And in the Navy even senior officers
very rarely exhibited the concern which they must always
have felt over the shortage of materiel. As for the
destroyers, I can honestly assert that never once did I
" "
hear, or hear of a Commander grousing over the
exacting and never-ending work which he was called upon
to perform. " "
No, the Royal Navy carried on with
what it had, and took no more account of it than it
did over enemy mines and submarines.
But I could not have written " Seafarers," and
for this reason. Now that the significance of the defects
revealed by Lord Jellicoe is apparent, the work per-
formed by the British Navy has proved far more amazing
than even I had realised. As it is, I have been unable
to find any words which can remotely suggest the wonder
of the achievement. With the significance brought home
to me I should have been quite dumb.
I must, though, confess to a devout
" feeling of thank-
fulness that The Grand Fleet " has been published
first. I tremble to think of the storm which I should
have raised over my devoted head had these revelations
(and others) come, quite unwittingly, from me. I prefer
to leave Service " revelations '
to the sensation-seeking
Press. I may add that in every case where I have been
in doubt whether to publish such facts, I have sought
the advice of senior naval officers. As a result I have
suppressed a good deal of matter.

"The Mariners of England"

Returning to the Recital, if I may say so without
appearing immodest it is work to which I look back
with pardonable pride. It was wholly unofficial there ;

was no monetary contribution to it either from public

funds or from individual private generosity all the
;

practical backing given by the Admiralty was a return

railway warrant to Edinburgh upon one occasion the ;
 AUTHOR'S NOTE 253
whole business was made self-supporting, and all net
proceeds went to Naval Charities.
But if there was no official support there was also no
interference, and after all that was the great thing. For
that I am deeply grateful. To be permitted to do useful
work for the Cause and in one's own way what more —
could any man ask ? And with so great a reward as
that which lay in the performance. One's only regret
is that development of the scheme as a whole, with its
endless possibilities, was refused.
From the above the reader may be interested in learn-
ing what ground was covered. In the three and a half
years, in leisure time from military duties and from direct-
ing other work, I have covered, broadly speaking, every
district in the United Kingdom south of Edinburgh and
Glasgow.
Thus, I toured in the south of Scotland in North ;

and South Wales ;

the north-east and north-west of
England; the industrial districts of the Midlands; Lan-
cashire and Yorkshire; the East Coast; Gloucestershire,
Warwick, and Oxford the Home Counties Sussex, Hamp-
; ;

shire, Dorset, and the West Country to Plymouth.

In the course of the Tours I have addressed audiences
of wellnigh every class of the community miners, :

W.A.A.C.'s, ship-builders (ah the reception of the story

!

on Tyne-side where all the ships bad been built !), dock-
yard hands, boys' and girls' schools, soldiers and sailors,
mine-sweepers, University students, munition workers,
factory hands of Lancashire and Yorkshire, railway em-
ployees, villagers of I he country districts, hospital nurses,
with great audiences of the unclassified general public.
The eagerness which was everywhere evinced to hear
" "
whal the Navy was doing can only describe as
I

pathetic. The enthusiasm which greeted a little of the

story repaid one a thousandfold for the labour.

A Tribute

So, in response to the requests with which I have hcen

honoured, this little book goes forth. And many of the
requests have come from the Senior Service itself. That
is another reason, and a good one.
But, chiefest of all, think, is this.
I I would ask
"
the Royal Navy, and all those who kept the. Seas,"
to accepl the volume as a tribute, some little hopelessly
inadequate expression of the deepest gratitude, from
254 AUTHOR'S NOTE
their comrades of the Junior Service. Service which, A
for the moment in this, I have the honour to represent.
"
People always say, How" come you, a soldierman,
to speak about the Navy ? The answer is obvious.
You would never get a sailorman to do it. You cannot
conceive an officer of the Royal Navy going about telling
"
people what splendid chaps we all are." Of course
you cannot. And someone has got to do it. Who more
fitting than a member of the other Service ? That has
been one of the triumphs of the scheme. Besides, I have
only been a soldierman as every other man in the country
should have been. It is not my profession. I have to
earn my living.

The "Trilogy"
So here is the last volume of my little War trilogy.
And it the
is last.
Although I expect
"
that I shall go
"
on doing the wandering minstrel business (D.V.)
until I really do look like an old bard —
grey beard, harp,
and other accessories of the profession. (No. In answer
to kind inquiries, my portrait is not published.)

An
Expression of Thanks
"
Well, now I must say Thank you " to those who
have held out a helping hand in my work. First to the
big-hearted generous public. The unfailing support, the
splendid enthusiasm of my readers and audiences have
been of priceless value and encouragement to me in a
very difficult and delicate task. I wonder if some of my
—
unknown correspondents and from every part of the
—
world realise how deep is the debt of gratitude which
they impose. I am poor even in thanks.
Then must I thank that Senior Officer of the Head-
quarter Staff, but whose name I regret I may not men-
tion. With rare insight and imagination that officer
realised from the outset, when the scheme was but in
embryo, the vital need for enlightenment and the value
to the Cause of that which I proposed. His personal
encouragement and the facilities which he permitted,
upon his own responsibility, have alone permitted the
execution of the project.
Next, my gratitude is due to Mr. Gerald Christy,
who, by his business organisation and whole-hearted
co-operation, wrestled, with complete success, with all
 AUTHOR'S NOTE 255
the intricate arrangements of the Recital tours. I owe
to Mr. Christy a big debt. (And to think that the Govern-
ment again and again refused his offer of gratuitous ser-
vice I)
To the Honorary Secretaries and Councils of various
Societies throughout the Kingdom; to the local Civic or
Urban Authorities for affording me their hospitality and
organisation ; to the pastors of the many Nonconformist
religious bodies ; to head masters and head mistresses of
Schools, public and private —
to all these and many more
my grateful appreciation and thanks. They all gave of
their best and co-operated in the scheme with enthusiasm.
(Ah, what might have been done if only the Government
had heeded !)
Of officers of the Royal Navy I owe a special debt
of gratitude to Admiral Lord Jellicoe. In the midst of
his onerous duties Lord Jellicoe again and again spared
the time to give to me his most invaluable encourage-
ment. I am much indebted, too, to Admiral Sir Charles
Madden, to Admiral Sir Cecil Burney, to Admiral Sir
James Startin, and to Admiral Sir Francis Bridgeman.
To these officers the support they gave may have seemed
a trilling thing ; but to the individual working single-
handed meant everything.
it
I am
indebted, too, to Commander C. C. Walcott,
R.N., of the Naval Intelligence Department, for his patience
and courtesy in supplying me at various times with odd
facts and figures. Also to the Statistical Department of
the Admiralty for further figures.

"The Seafarers" and Published Authorities

Thus far the Recital. Now regarding the historical

material woven into this volume. My Sea library is not
a large one, but it is useful. I find nearly half a shelf

taken up by the seven massive volumes of Laird Clowes's

"History of the Royal Navy." A good, solid founda-
tion. At the other end of the scale I see John Lev-
land's delightful little 6i x 5-inch work, "The Royal
"
Navy," and II. W. Household's equally delightful Light-
ing for Sea Lower in Days of Sail." In between come,
of course, the works of Admiral Mahan. No student of
the Sea Affair may lack these. Then there is Julian
"
Corbett's Drake and the Tudor Navy," in two volumes.
A splendid romance, so written that every hoy would
love it if only he knew about it.
256 AUTHOR'S NOTE
From Corbet t's "Principles of Maritime Strategy' 1
have derived much ins ruction, and from Thursfield's
I

" "
Nelson, and Other Studies much information and
" "
entertainment. Silburn's Evolution of Sea Power ;

Commander Robinson, R.N., in his " British Fleet " and

" British
Tar in Fact and Fiction," both classics, I imagine ;
" " "
Masefield's Sea Life in Nelson's
" and Voyages
Hakluyt's ;
" "
Time A Sailor's Garland
Aston's
"
Letters on Amphibious Wars
;

—
Brigadier-General
"
all these and

many others have contributed in varying degrees to the

"
Writing of The Seafarers."
—
Then everyone who has followed or tried to follow —
the fortunes of the British Navy in the Great War must
acknowledge the guidance and help of Mr. Archibald
Hurd. I most certainly do. Mr. Hurd's work in the
Daily Telegraph and Fortnightly Review has been a bright
oasis in a wilderness of mediocrity. Of course, Mr. A. H.
—
Pollen in Land and Water we have all looked forward
week by week to his articles. But Mr. Hurd has got at a
large public, and he is warmly to be congratulated, as also
are the Proprietors and Editor of the Daily Telegraph.
I am indebted lo The Times for information derived
from various articles. This, I think, I have acknow-
ledged in footnotes to the text. Naval Despatches and
official communiques have also been studied, and occa-
sional articles in English and Scottish journals. I think
that practically covers my published authorities.

Personal Experience

imagine, be fairly obvious that quite a deal

It will, I
of "The Seafarers" is the result of personal observation.
That is so. For I have had the privilege of seeing some-
thing of practically every phase of the Navy's work in
the War, sometimes the honour of actually sharing in
it. For the rest, like old Haklnyt, I have made it my
business to talk to the men who have done the work.
It Was a pretty hard business extracting information.
As I have already suggested I tackled this Navy work
in the firm conviction that great harm was being done
by the insensate policy of silence about the Sea Service.
The three-and-a-half years' work has only served to
deepen "that conviction. I spoke strongly on the subject
Marnc book, and I had hoped that by those
'

in my
comments and personal example the Government would
move in the matter. I must confess to my failure.
 AUTHOR'S NOTE 257
But not just the question of Enlightenment in the
it is
work of the Navy or of the Army, it is a question of ade-
quate enlightenment in all the vital facts of the day. But
I will take the Navy question
by itself. And if you imagine
that I have a " bee in my bonnet " over the business,
I can only reply that
interpretation and enlightenment
form my life's work, so that I am interested in every
phase of it. For Enlightenment is an Art in itself.

" "
The Silent Service

Well, now, about the Navy the

"
" —
silent
"
Service I

It is silent," I imagine, because (a) its work is done

on the High Seas outside our ken, and (b) because men
of action do not speak about their gallantry, even if
they considered it as such. For those two reasons, ap-
parently, the public are not permitted to learn of the
" "
Navy's deeds. It is quite time this silent myth was
exploded once and for all.
And do you fondly imagine that the Navy wishes the
public to be kept in this abysmal ignorance ? Devil a
bit. For one thing, the Navy itself does not know what
"
it is doing. I wish," said Admiral Madden to me on
"
one occasion, you would go round the Grand Fleet
and tell us what the Navy's doing." Ships know about
their own personal work, but not one man in a thousand
realises its bearing upon the big issues. Any more than
a company commander knows about the issue of a land
battle.
The Royal Navy has its own tremendously technical
work to perforin, and it has not time for anything else.
But if I have heard it from one man 1 have heard it from
fifty, to the stokers' mess-deck, they are
flag-officers
one and intensely anxious that the public should learn
all
of their doings.
For, apart from a very natural pride in their work,
senior officers are alarmed that unless the public learn
the facts the public will not vote the money for ships
and naval construction generally. And I have in this
volume referred to historical precedents in that very
point. So there is one very strong argument for publicity.
'

We shall have to have another big Fleet action," said

another distinguished flag-officer to me in 1917, " or
the public will never believe that we have been doing
anything. And that will mean a very small Vote of
Credit from Parliament,"
K
258 AUTHORS NOTE
Certainly R.N. officers and men are strongly averse
from posing before the public as heroes. So are all decent
men. The professional Navy is no different in that
respect from the regular, professional Army. The
Old
Army, for instance, always disapproved of the wearing
of wound stripes on their tunics. Similarly, the Navy
cordially disliked the silver and gold chevrons denoting
years of war service. One Army officer of my acquaint-
ance, entitled to wear a long row of war ribbons and
decorations, refuses to wear a single one.
A naval officer does not talk about his work for at
least one very good reason — the ordinary layman would
not understand a word. Similarly, Navy humour is for
the most part wholly peculiar to the Service in that it
is concerned with incidents which could not appeal to
the ordinary civilian. In all my association with the
Royal Navy I "have only" picked up three humorous yarns
which would carry with an average audience. Two
of these appear in "Seafarers," and one of them is not
very funny. " "
No, you may wipe off the map that silent myth.
The Royal Navy wishes the public to know about the
ships and the men ;
and from personal experience I know
only too well that the public long to hear about their
sailormen.
"
As for the " information to the enemy idea, that
is as ludicrous as the rest. I am not accustomed to

give to my audiences information which could be of

military use to the enemy. And often, to my joy, I
"
have had uninterned Huns in front." Even in this
volume there are only two or three incidents narrated
which might not have passed the Censor. You will
remember what America said when it was seriously pro-
posed to keep the American people in the same state
of ignorance about the doings of their warships in European
waters.
"
Say ! We haven't sent our boys those thousands
of miles just on a joy ride, and we're darned well going
to know what they're doing. So you can get busy right
"
away." And the authorities had to get busy."

Britain Doesn't Advertise

Then there is the dear old " Britain doesn't advertise

"
herself idea. Well, it is about time she did. That
non-advertisement has in this late War done the Empire
 AUTHOR'S NOTE 259
an infinite deal of harm with her Allies and with other
countries. I happen to be one of those extraordinary
individuals Who are not only intensely proud of what
Britain has done in the War, but who are not afraid
to say so. And the sooner people stop playing the hypo-
crite about our effort the better it will be for the Empire.
It only gets Britons cordially disliked. I don't mean
that we should go about bragging and boasting. There
is a proper mean. We never get beyond the defect.
As for the effect in our own country of this policy
of silence —
well, it has been simply disastrous from first
to last. But I am running off the rails. I was talking
about the Navy.
I do not blame the Admiralty so much, for enlighten-
ment of the general public is not their business. They
have plenty of other work in hand. But I do blame
the Government, and I do blame the Press. For the
former there is no shadow of excuse. Lack of imagina-
tion one can counter to some extent but definite and
;

determined opposition by men who pull powerful strings

— that is another matter.
Now as this subject of enlightenment is most cer-
tainly my business, I have not the least hesitation in
setting down details of the scandalous neglect and gross
mismanagement on the part of the Government where
home propaganda has been concerned. And this I have
done elsewhere. It has relieved the pent-up feelings of
four long years' fighting against the civilian mandarins
and the Don't-hurt-Germany Party. "Incidentally, the
indictment includes the scandal of the War Aims Com-
mittee," the guillotining of the powers of the Ministry
of Information, and the deliberate refusal of the Govern-
ment to support or encourage in any way individual
enterprise.*
Beginning with the insults levied against Lord Roberts
and the contemptuous neglect of the information given
by our Intelligence Department before the War, down
" "
to the astonishing gift of the 1914 Star riband
(the King's personal creation) to thousands of men not

*
By the way, "why did the Authorities insist on sending out
to America some of our best war lecturers instead of keeping
them for the far nccdcl Home work? Major Ian Hay
'

Beith, Major Radclyfle Dugdale, Mr. Allied Noyes, Mr. John

Mascficld, and others ? Personally, I was officially invited on
four occasions to visit America.
260 AUTHOR'S NOTE
entitled to it, it is a rare catalogue of misdemeanours to
which an answer is demanded.

Ignorance in High Places

Now in the matter of our Sea Services the main,
outstanding fact is that ignorance in the meaning and
value of Britain's Sea Power is not confined to the general
public. The men who govern the country, the Press,
the teachers, the ministers of religious denominations,
all these are ignorant in greater or less degree. I would

wager that if an examination paper on the elementary

facts and principles of our Sea Power were set to a repre-
sentative class of these men, barely a third of the class
" "
would secure even pass marks.
And this is the subject which" is the foundation of
our very existence as a nation. Sea Power " has be-
come merely a shibboleth when it should be a living,
splendid creed.
And yet, how should these men be informed ? Un-
less a man studies the subject upon his own initiative
he has no other opportunity of becoming acquainted
with it. Schools and Universities have never devoted
a particle of attention to it. One has only to take any
average book of English History, such as one studied
in childhood, to note how all the attention is given to
land warfare and battles to the total neglect of the Sea
Affairand its bearing.
But a man who seeks Government office should study
it upon his own initiative. In fact, I would make it
law that no man should be eligible for office until he had
shown himself conversant with the facts and principles
of Sea Power. Our national policy would then at least
be founded upon a proper knowledge of the issues most
vital to the country. And if Editors of the public Press
possessed a similar knowledge, we should find our journals
giving to the subject its proper position, together with
criticism of a worthy and informative character.

The Future?
But the past done with.
is What of the future ?
Are we proposing to go on in the same old way ? Or
is it worth while for us to take to heart the lessons of
the past and to see whether they may teach us any-
 AUTHOR'S NOTE 261

thing to our profit and advancement ? Is enlightenment

in the meaning of Sea Power and in the work of our Sea
Services like to prove of use for the future ?
From one point of view there can be no possibility
of disagreement. Most emphatically it will prove of
use. But from another point of view there is, as I see
it, an element of doubt. What is going to be the future
of naval warfare ?
Now that is a subject which, frankly, I shirk dis-
cussing. So, too, do naval officers. We all dread it.
But it is with considerable astonishment that I have
noted all avoidance of the matter in the Press. Yet it
must be faced sooner or later. How can the British Navy
remain our first line of defence in view of the development
of aircraft ?
Is it realised that even before the armistice was
signed invention had reached to such a point that aero-
planes flying out of range of gun-fire could torpedo
battleships ?
And yet here is America voting an enormous warship
programme to outbuild the world. And here are re-
sponsible journals talking as though sea warfare in the
future is going to be only a trifling development of what
it has been in the late War 1 Is all this just bluff, a
trading upon ignorance, or is it due to an almost incredible
lack of imagination ?
That is my second point, and I leave the discussion
of it to the experts. It is no use setting out to teach
the younger generation that our future " lies upon the
"
water when really it lies in the air.
The Royal Navy does not care to talk about it. And
yet there is one phase of the subject upon which officers
speak with no uncertain voice, and that is about the
Freedom of the Seas. On that topic there is nothing to
discuss. The detached, arm-chair, pretended idealism
of politicians, our own or of other nations, only excites
a quiet amusement. For what the Navy says in effect
is this :

What Drake and Rodney and Collingwood and

'

Anson and Ralegh and Nelson and Hawke and a

score more have won for us, we are not going to give
up."
It would therefore almost seem well if those politicians
saved their breath for the cooling of their porridge, for
I fancy that the temper of the nation is the same as that
of its Navy.
262 AUTHOR'S NOTE
The Moral Factor
But if we look to the lessons of the late War and of
past sea warfare to serve as an inspiration for the future,
then is Enlightenment worth the while. As a moral
force the story of self-sacrifice and devotion to duty of
our Seafarers must prove of incalculable value to the
youth of the Nation. It is a point so obvious that it
should call for no labouring. Yet why have the Authorities
never taken it up ? Always is one confronted with this
pitiable want of imagination, this myopia blocked by
the parish pump. If to the story of devotion we add
a little of the history of the Sea Power of Britain, and
of what that Power has done for the country and for
civilisation, surely that should tend to make better citizens
of all of us and prouder than ever of our great heritage.
As it is, this is what we are likely to encounter in
the streets of London at the Peace celebrations. There
will, I suppose, be the usual detachment of bluejackets
dragging a naval gun at the head of the procession. And,
as they pass by, Mr. and Mrs. John Citizen will flutter
handkerchiefs from window or pavement with the remark :

" Hm Smart lads they always look. Pity they

I

"
never had a chance to show what they could do !

No. They only won the War for you, that's all I

The " Human "

Touch
Now me to make one or two suggestions.
permit
That you agree with me that enlightenment in this
is, if
subject is worth while. " (I have, by the a cordial
" and way,
"
dislike for the words education lecture," as
may have been noticed.) The first, and most obvious,
step to be taken is to enlighten the men and women who
are to act as apostles and teachers. Then, having set
that work in hand, to tackle all the boys' and girls' schools
in the Empire. At least, that is how I see it.
The subject of Britain's Sea Service is one which is
intensely alive ; it throbs with vitality in every part.

Thus, anything academic in the training is out of place.

The " human " note must be there first, last, and all
the time. It is the men, not the ships, that have mat-
tered. I think that should be the basis.
This is not to suggest that a Chair in Naval History,
such as Lord Rothermere has recently founded at Cam-
 AUTHOR'S NOTE 263
bridge, is out of place. But we know what these pro-
fessorships are like to become and unless there is a
;

real live man of wide sympathies sitting in that Cam-

bridge Chair we shall find Naval History being taught
like mathematics or the Greek particle.
By the way, it is over three hundred years ago since
Richard Hakluyt was urging the proper Enlightenment
of English folk in their Sea Power. Here is what he
wrote :

"
I have greatly wished there were a Lecture of Navi-

gation read in this Citie (London), for the banishing of

our former grosse ignorance in Marine causes, and for
the increase and generall multiplying of the sea-knowledge
in this age."
Three hundred years 1
Well, the Government always
did take a bit of moving.

A Dream Picture

But my dream for the teaching of the Sea Affair is

a great central Institution in London. It might form
a part of the Empire's memorial of gratitude to the British
Navy. And what more worthy memorial could one
desire than to perpetuate the teaching which our Sea-
farers have taught ? The building should be a noble one,
of rare imagination, worthy of the Sea Service. It should
contain all the treasured relics of our Sea history, past
and recent, not in a dry-as-dust museum, but so that
they may seem to live. A library, of course, there should
be, to contain all books of the sea published. And how
curiously few in number they are. A fine theatre for
the kinematograph, for that would be one of the most
import ;uii features of the institution. By it every phase
of the Sea Services, past and present, would be pre-
sented; stories of great endeavour, llw lives of famous
seamen, the story of our commerce, all would he shown
by the film. These so Ear as the distinct Limitations of
kinematograph and photographs permit and provided,
;

too, that British Film Companies learn heir business

I

properly.
There should he another great hall for meetings.
Navy addresses and recitals for the general public a ;

smaller hall and class-rooms for lectures on the more

technical subjects and lor ehisses and courses. A picture
gallery? Well, no1 exactly that, because pictures in the
mass are wearying to the eye. I should prefer an arrange-
264 AUTHOR'S NOTE
ment something after the artistic method of Japan. But
pictures, and many of them, there should certainly be,
and well disposed for effect. Provision should also be
made for music. There would be orchestral concerts of
"
music associated with the Mackenzie's
sea, e.g. Britan-
" "
nia overture, Tyrrold's On
the Irish Shore," Delius's
" " " Sea
Sea Drift," Mendelssohn's Hebrides," Debussy's
"
Pictures," "Wagner's Flying Dutchman " overture, Ban-
" "
tock's Hebridean Symphony, and so forth. Con-
certs and recitals and costume performances of songs
old and new about sea life, sailor chanties, folk songs
(the Breton folk songs of the sea are lovely things), Stan-
ford, Elgar —
there is a good catalogue to choose from.
Another and most important feature would be the
recitals and dramatic lectures upon all phases of the
Sea Affair. It is the spoken word which strikes home
more than anything else with sea stories. But the recitals
must be alive ; no mumbling from a reading-desk, no
sheaf of notes. Clean, bracing elocution, and dramatic
fervour. Plenty of humour. And the audience must
take a part by singing choruses. There is nothing an
audience enjoys more. (Personally, I always get my
audiences singing " Heart of Oak," or " Tom Bowling,"
or " The Battle of Jutland," etc.)
Other recitals would be given of Sea Poetry and Prose,
old and new :

Couch, Shelley, Newbolt, B. L. Stevenson, Conrad an —

Coleridge, Shakespeare, Masefield, Quiller-

endless variety there is.

My dream Memorial would find a place for large
models to scale of ships of all kinds, arranged in picturesque
settings, and so that you could see inside them and the
"
wheels going round." And I am quite sure people
would love the illusion of going down in a submarine.
At least, it would give an idea of the conditions of life
and work in one if a good model were built with scenic
accessories.

Children and the Sea Story

And so one goes on dreaming. But the keynote of

the whole must be, I repeat, that it is alive. We
do not
want another Imperial Institute. Of course, in this I am
only anticipating the general character of Education in
the future, when Latin and Greek and History and Geo-
graphy will be taught properly so that the lessons are
actually enjoyed.
 AUTHOR'S NOTE 265
But whether my dream Memorial is immediately
practicable or not, those are the general principles which
I would suggest for Enlightenment. And apply them not
only to the training of the teachers, but to the youth
of the Empire. Two hours a week, one hour even, would
be of value to a school curriculum. Every school, for
instance, will have its own kinematograph. The sea
films would be obtainable on hire from the Navy Insti-
tution. The Institution would also be the Central Bureau
"
big men
'

for general advice, the supply of special

lectures, etc.
Children, boys and girls alike, respond most eagerly
to the telling of our Sea Story. (I cannot avoid the
personal note because I write almost wholly from per-
sonal experience.) My best audiences have been children,
and I give just the same kind of recital to them as to
grown-ups. And if you find little girls of twelve years
old or so telling you, after a recital lasting an hovir and
a half (without lantern pictures), that they could have
"
gone on listening all the evening," you may reckon
that your work is not being wasted.
One little lady writing to me (quite spontaneously,
"
as I afterwards heard) remarked I wish that all the
:

people in the British Isles had been there on Saturday"

"
(at a Navy recital) ; perhaps, if they had, we should
not have so many of those strikes which are a shame
to the country."
(Really, Mr. Premier or Mr. Chancellor, if a child
in a L.C.C. Secondary School can appreciate what is at
the bottom of most of our Industrial unrest, it is quite
time that you and your colleagues tackled the subject.
But you wouldn't listen lo repealed warnings all these
four years past, repeated appeals, offers of help ; now
it has come lo the very children bearing witness against

you.)
Pride of Country
The schools, and the public generally, should be afforded
every opportunity for visiting, or at least seeing, the
ships of the Royal Navy. A year or so ago I suggested
to the Government that one of the first things to be
done, so soon as it was practicable, was to arrange for
the public to see the Grand Fleet, or as much of it as
possible. I am glad to learn that this idea is likely to
be adopted.
Universities and other educational centres can do
266 AUTHOR'S NOTE
much good by arranging courses of lectures upon the
Sea Affair and Sea Power. They should be of a " popular "
character. Sheffield University did splendid work early
iti the War with its lectures all through the neighbour-
hood upon war topics. The London County Council,
already most sympathetic in such matters, can do work
of immense value in London with the children. Just
as they are now doing by the Shakespeare plays through
the sterling help of Mr. Ben Greet.
As regards other schools throughout the Empire may
I venture to urge upon all head masters and head mistresses
that this subject is at least worthy of a trial ? A single
hour's instruction, if it is given in an entertaining manner,
will, I believe, suffice to arouse a keen interest on the
part of pupils. It then becomes a matter of keeping
that interest alive, either by the suggestion of suitable
books for reading, or in other ways already noted. The
prize essay scheme for schools adopted by the Navy
League is excellent, and should be extended. Make the
children proud of their Country, and they will see that
their Country is worthy of their pride.

Some Broader Issues

Upon the broader issues of Enlightenment generally

I not enlarge again here. I spoke of it in " The Marne
will —
and After." But I shall continue hammering at the subject
in and out of season until something practical is done.
To me the inaction of the Authorities is beyond com-
prehension. I can conceive nothing to account for it.
It isn't lack of imagination or knowledge, because every-
one takes a hand in telling the Government the facts.
It cannot be bribery by German gold. It surely cannot
be from political party motives, for everybody is affected
by these industrial strikes. It cannot be from lack of
men and women to undertake the work, for there are
many willing helpers. It cannot be from lack of funds,
for the Government can surely afford a return railway
fare or two and a night's lodging. What is the reason ?
I don't know.
One can hardly pick up a paper these days which
does not state quite plainly in referring to a strike, " the
men do not understand the facts," or " " why does not
the Government enlighten everybody ? —
or some such
remarks. Take the Demobilisation business and all that
trouble with the soldiers marching to Whitehall. Every-
 AUTHOR'S NOTE 267
one knows that it was only because the men did not
understand the position. I remember urging, eighteen
months ago, that there would be chaos over this very
matter if Peace were to come suddenly and the men
were not told what to expect. As it was, when the trouble
was at its height, officers had to go round giving impromptu
lectures to inform the men. Then the trouble ended.
Hullo " said a 'bus driver to a " Tube " man.
"
!

" "
Out on strike again ! What's it for this time ?
"
'
I dunno," said the
"
Tube " man ;
"
but whatever
it is,we're going to get it."
And that just about sums it all up. One could give
scores of cases during and after the War. Yet I know
myself of two big strikes nipped in the bud just by reason
of an Army officer, on his own initiative, letting the
workers have the facts of the case straight from the
shoulder. Only the other day I read of Mr. "Van der
Veer, the well-known London editor of the Amsterdam
Tclegraaf, speaking at Wigan (I think it was) on behalf
of the Navy League and stopping a certain strike there.
Why, too, are the commercial firms themselves so lacking
in enterprise ?
Wherever one turns, whatever problem of the moment
one considers, it is invariably want of enlightenment
which is the primary cause of the trouble. The Sexual
Disease problem is almost wholly one of lack of enlighten-
ment. (But this was tackled at the end of 1913, and
with far-reaching results so far as the measures have
yet been possible.) The appreciation
"
of good music —
mainly a matter of learning how to listen."
Much may be done by individual effort, and in spite
of official apathy, as has been done during the War.
But a man cannot go on indefinitely giving his time
and money to this purpose. Most of us have to earn
our living. I certainly have. And it's time I stopped
talking and got on with some Work.
A. Corbett-Smith.

The Middle Temple,

London, February, 1919.
 APPENDIX

ADMIRAL LORD COLLINGWOOD'S DESPATCH

UPON THE
BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR
" On Monday, the 21st of October, at daylight, when
Cape Trafalgar bore east by south about seven leagues,
the enemy was discovered six or seven miles to the east-
ward, the wind about west and very light the Com-;

mander-in-Chief immediately made the signal for the

fleet to bear up in two columns, as they are formed in
order of sailing a mode of attack his Lordship had pre-
;

viously directed, to avoid the inconvenience and delay

in forming a line of battle in the usual manner. The
. . .

action began at twelve o'clock, by the leading ships of

the columns breaking through I he enemy's line the. . .

succeeding ships breaking through, in all parts, astern of

their leaders, and engaging the enemy at the muzzles
of their guns the conflict was severe
;
the enemy's
;

ships were fought with a gallantry highly honourable to

their officers but the attack on them was irresistible,
;

and it pleased the Almighty Disposer of Events to grant

his Majesty's arms a complete and glorious victory about
3 p.m. Many of the enemy's ships having struck their
colours, their line gave way; Admiral Gravina, with
fourteen ships stood towards Cadiz, leaving (as
. . .

prizes . .
.) to his Majesty's squadron nineteen ships of
the line. . . .

" Such a battle could not be fought without

sustaining
a great loss of men. I have not only to lament, in common
with the British Navy and the British nation, in the
fall of the Commander-in-Chief, Viscount Nelson, the
loss of a hero whose name will be immortal, and his
memory ever dear to his country but my heart is nut
;

with the most poignant^ grief for the death of a friend,

270 APPENDIX
to whom, by many years' intimacy and a perfect know-
ledge of the virtues of his mind, which inspired ideas
superior to the common race of men, I was bound by
the strongest ties of affection —
a grief to which even the
;

glorious occasion on which he fell does not bring that

consolation which perhaps it ought. His Lordship re-
ceived a musket-ball in his left breast about the middle
of the action, and sent an officer to me immediately with
his last farewell, and soon afterwards expired. . . .

" The whole fleet were now in a

perilous situation, many
dismasted, all shattered, in thirteen fathoms of water, off
the shoals of Trafalgar and, when I made the signal
;

to prepare to anchor, few of the ships had an anchor to

let go, their cables being shot. But the same good Provi-
dence which aided us through such a day preserved us
in the night by the wind shifting a few points and drifting
the ships off the land. Having thus detailed the
. . .

proceedings of the fleet on this occasion, I beg to con-

gratulate their Lordships on a victory which, I hope,
will add a ray to the glory of his Majesty's crown and be
attended with public benefit to our country."

II

ADDRESS DELIVERED BY
ADMIRAL SIR DAVID BEATTY
ON BOARD H.M.S. LION, ON 24TH NOVEMBER, 1918,
TO THE OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE LION
AND FIRST BATTLE CRUISER SQUADRON
" Officers and Men of the First Battle Cruiser Squadron,
— You are going away to-day to perform a final duty, and
I could not you go without visiting a part of my old
let
command, and more especially my old flagship, to say a
few Words. First of all to thank you for all that you have
done during the past four and a half years to enable us to
achieve a triumph, which you witnessed, and which has
surpassed anything that has ever occurred before. I
thank you for maintaining cheerfulness through the long
Weary years of war, for having maintained an efficiency
which has created a prestige in the minds of the enemy, and
 APPENDIX 271
has brought about his downfall. England owes the Grand
Fleet a great, great debt. The world owes the Grand
Fleet a great debt. It has been said before, and it will be
said many times again, that the war, which is now on the
threshold of coming to an end, has been won by sea-power.
You are the representatives of sea-power. Military suc-
cesses have been great. Military victories have been
achieved under circumstances which have produced diffi-
culties, all of which have been overcome by the greatest
gallantry, devotion to duty and sacrifice. But all that
would have been of no value without the sea-power of
England. On you lies the great burden, and to you is
due great credit.
"
I have always said in the past that the High Sea
Fleet would have to come out and meet the Grand Fleet.
I was not a false prophet ;they are out, and they are now
in. They are in our pockets, and the First Battle Cruiser
Squadron is going to look after them. The First Battle
Cruiser Squadron, in fact the Battle Cruiser Force, has a
more intimate acquaintance with the enemy than any other
force of the Grand Fleet. It has been their great fortune
to have cast their eye upon them on several occasions, and
generally with very good effect. But we never expected
that the last time we should see them as a great force would
be when they were being shepherded, like a Hock of sheep,
by the Grand Fleet.
" It was a
pitiable sight, in fact I should say it was a
horrible sight, to see these great ships that we have been
looking forward so long to seeing, expecting them to have
the same courage that we expect from men whose work
lies —
upon great waters we did expect them to do some-
—
thing for the honour of their country and I think it was
a pitiable sight to sec them come in, led by a British light-
cruiser, with their old antagonists, the battle-cruisers,
gazing at them.
" I am sure that the sides of this
gallant old ship, which
have been well hammered in the past, must have ached —
as I ached, as all ached —to give them another dose of
what we had intended for them. Hut I will say this, that
their humiliating end was a suitable end and a proper end
for a foe so lacking in chivalry and in what we look for
from an honourable foe. From the beginning ids strategy,
Ids tactics and Ids behaviour have been beneath contempt,
272 APPENDIX
and worthy of a nation which has waged war in the man-
ner in which the enemy has waged war.
"
They are now going to be taken and placed under the
guardianship of the Grand Fleet at Scapa, where they will
enjoy, as we have enjoyed, the pleasures of Scapa. But
they have nothing to look forward to, as we had. That
which kept up our spirits, kept up our efficiency. They
have nothing to look forward to except degradation. The
First Battle Cruiser Squadron has been selected, because
it is the First Battle Cruiser Squadron, to take them there.
And I consider it, and I am sure that you consider it, a
great honour to have the guarding and shepherding of the
enemy to their last resting-place, until it is decided what
shall be done with them ;and I am sure that you will look
after them, and see there is no skipping about on Flotta,
better than anybody else can.
" I want to touch on one other topic, and that is, that
any of you who have dealings with representatives of the
High Sea Fleet will remember what they have done in the
—
past no clapping them on the back, giving them a
cigarette, and calling them
'
old chap.' As I have said
in my memorandum, you have to treat them with courtesy,
cold courtesy. Every time you feel sorry for them, re-
member what they have done in the past. Don't ever
forget it ; it would be the greatest mistake in the world.

" The British

sailor is very sympathetic. We know that
he has a very large heart, and sometimes a very short
memory. In this case just contract your heart and
lengthen your memory, and remember that the enemy
that you are looking after is despicable, nothing more nor
less. He is not worthy of the sacrifice of one bluejacket
in the Grand Fleet. And that is the one bright spot in the
fact that he did not give us what we hoped for — a good
stand-up fight. He would not be worthy of the loss of one
life in the Grand Fleet ;
he is too far beneath us. , ,"
.
 INDEX
Aboukir, sinking of, 118 (note) Bacon, Vice-Admiral, tribute
Addah survivors fired on by to the Dover Patrol, 84
enemy, 209 Baghdad, fall of, its effect
Admiralty Salvage Corps, the, throughout Eastern
214 world, 88
Aeroplane attack on Avocet, 6 the Navy and, 86
Africa, combined operations in, Baker, Captain, of Mystery
90 ship Phoenix, 223
Aguila, sinking of, 31 Ballin, Herr, an admission by,
Aircraft as submarine spotters, 190
212 Battle Cruiser Squadron (1st)
the future of, 261 and surrender of High
America, a German gibe at, and Sea Fleet, 272
the result, 71 (note) Beatty, Admiral, addresses First
and blockade of Germany, Battle Cruiser Squadron,
182 270
shipbuilding programme of, and Jutland battle, 61, 123,
261 133
American soldiers, number con- his contempt of German
voyed to France, 164 Navy, 128, 271
transport torpedoed off Ire- Belgian coast, the, and amphi-
land, 162 bious warfare, 84
" a
Amphibious warfare," in- Belgian Prince, surrender of :

stances of, 77 et seq. typical instance of Ger-

Anglo- Californian baulks a sub- man kultur, 207
marine, 199 Blake, Robert, as soldier and
Anson, Commodore George, his sailor, 29
voyage in Centurion, 12 Blockades, object of, 175
Aretliusa and Heligoland Bight Blucher, sinking of, 119
battle, 119 Boy Sea Scouts, value of their
Army, the Service of the aris- services, 243
tocracy, 37 Bradbury, Captain E, K., heroic
Aston, Brig.-Gen. G. ('.., his passing of, 65 (note)
"
Letters on
Amphibious Bunnell, skipper of Avocet, 6
Wars," 78 (note) British Fleet, "offence" the
Atlantic Ocean, mileage of, inspiration of, 97
18!i British Isles, German blockade
Australian Government, Lord of, 182
Kitchener's Memoran- British Navy. (Vide Navy,
dum to, 74 British)
Avocet, a gallant Qght by, <i British shipping during sub-
A/ores, the, Germany and, 177 marine blockade. 203-4
S 273
274 Index
British superiority at sea, vital Convoy and transport of troops,
importance of, 174 159 et seq.
Broke fights enemy destroyers, Co-operation, definition of, 76
140, 142 Coquette's crew captured by
Brunswick, a damaged figure- Arabs, 201
head on, and how it was Corbett, Sir Julian, on value of
restored, 132 amphibious warfare, 86
Cornwallis, Admiral, war-orders
of, 116
"
Cable length " defined, 18 Cornwell, Jack, the boy hero of
(note) Chester, 65
Campbell, Captain Gordon, and Craven, Lieut. F. W., seaman-
H.M.S. Dunraven, 225 ship of, 57
work of, in scheme of Mys- Cressy, sinking of, 118 (note)
tery ships, 223 Crimea, the, amphibious war-
Canadian Nursing Sisters, a Roll fare in, 77
of Sacrifice, 34 Crisp, Thomas, last words of, 65
and Llandovery Castle, 32 Cruiser Squadron (10th), in-
Cap Trafalgar sunk by Car- valuable work of, 184
mania, 153 Cumberland, coast fighting of, 90
Carmania, the crew's request to
skipper of, 153
Censorship question, the, 258 Damascus, capture of, 89
Centurion, Anson's voyage in, 12 Dardanelles campaign, the
Channel ports, the fight for, 162 Navy's work in, 90
Chile, Revolutionary Campaign De Burgh, Hubert, victorious
in, 78 fight in Straits of Dover
Chinese, the, and the Royal by, 61, 150
Navy, 55 De Chair, Rear-Admiral Sir
City of Birmingham, captain's Dudley, and the Tenth
tribute to women, 31 Cruiser Squadron, 184
Clan Macfarlane, plight of sur- De Ruyter, Admiral, a tribute
vivors of, 201 to English courage, 38
Clan Maclavish, an unequal fight Deep-sea fishermen, fine work
with Moewe, 151 of, 167
Clowes, Sir William Laird, on Denmark, shipping of, sunk by
the Royal Navy, 29 enemy, 197
Collingwood, Admiral Lord, de- Destroyers, shortage of, 251
votion to duty of, 66 their services at Jutland, 124
his despatch on battle of various duties undertaken
Trafalgar, 269 by, 139
Colonies, overseas, 174 work in Great War, 136
Combat, some maxims ;
and Vide also Torpedo boat
(

their observance, 94 destroyers)

Commerce protection, import- Deutschland crosses to and from
ance of, 178 New York, 216
Commissioner sinks a submar- Didon fights Phoenix, 224
ine, 211 Discovery, fate of, 9
"
Communications, preserving and Dockyard maties," an unex-
cutting, 173 et seq. pected trip of, 1
Contraband of war defined, 181 Dogger Bank action, the, 156
Controversy, dangers of, 251 Dover, cliffs of, 166
 Index 275
Dover Patrol, the, tribute to, 84 Frigate, definition of, 223 (note)
fine work of, 166 et seq. Fryatt, Captain, murder of, 201
Drake, Francis, amphibious war-
fare of, 76-7
and the policy of offence, Gartside-Tipping, Lieut. -Com-
143 mander H. T., death
on comradeship, 51 of, 85
Dummy battleships, a squadron Gaura, siege of, Navy's share
155 of, in, 90
Duncan, Admiral, a memorable German atrocities and barbar-
utterance by, 58 ities, 48, 54, 201 ct seq.
Dunraven, last fight of, 225 cruiser chases Ortega, 10
Dwarf, coast fighting of, 90 sunk by British submar-
ine, 146
German Navy, filthy condition
"
E 11," romance of, 145 of their ships, 122
Elizabeth, an engagement with their loss of moral, 120, 121
pirate craft, 5 Germans, submarine losses of,
Emden, her last fight, 151 149
Enemy trading, law of, 181 Germany and the transport of
Enlightenment in War Facts troops, 164
and Ideas, scheme for, bases of, 176
249 et seq. blockade of, 180 et seq.
Evans, Commander, of Broke, her communications cut, 175
140 humiliation of Admiral
:

Beatty on, 271

infamous conduct of, 241
Ferguson, Rodert, of Vigilant, lack of enterprise at sea at
193 beginning of war, 115,
First Battle Cruiser Squadron 117, 118
shepherds enemy fleet medals commemorating
to Scapa, 271 sinking of Lusilania,
Fisher, Lord, a disregarded pro- 208
phecy by, 198 privations of, 187
and improvement of British submarines surrendered, 98,
mines, 215 149
Fisherfolk and the Great War, surrenders her Fleet, 97, 121
15 Golden Hind, tonnage of, 25
Food as contraband of war, Goodhart, Lieut. - Commander,
182 heroic death of, 146
Food supply, Britain's, 178 Goivan Lea, a plucky fight with
Forecastle, definition of, 7 (note) an Austrian cruiser, 154
"
Formidable, loss of, 65 Grand Fleet, enlistment of hos-
Fox, Lieut. -Commander Charles, tility men," 26
memorable utterance of, watching and waiting policy
64 of, 97
skipper of Mary Rose, 62 Great Britain, an historic De-
Fraser, Sister M. M., heroism claration by, and the
of, 32 result, 183
Freedom of the Seas, definition her fatal policv of silence,
of, 196 258
Germany's idea of, 196 storehouses of, 190
276 Index
Great Britain, strength of Mer-
cantile Marine at out-
break of war, 191
Great War, the, and the Mer-
cantile Marine, 14
co-operation of the two Ser-
vices in, 78
Sea Power as deciding issue
in, 72
the seven theatres of, 160
Hakluyt, Richard, on need
of Enlightenment, 263
Hall, Rear-Admiral Sir W. R.,
head of Intelligence Ser-
vice, 112
Hartlepool, bombardment of, 97
Harvey, Captain, of Brunswick,
a deputation to, 132
Harwich Force, the, 98
Hela sunk by British sub-
marine, 146
Heligoland Bight, battle of, 119
mining, 139
shallowness of, 212
Hermione, recapture of, 96
Hewitt, Fleet-Surgeon D. W.,
129
Hogue, sinking of, 118 (note)
" "
Holland, neutrality of, 197
Hood, Rear-Admiral the Hon.
H. L. A., a tribute to,
125
Horse transport by sea, statis-
tics of, 161
Hospital ship torpedoed and
sunk, 31
"
Howe, Lord, and the Glorious
First of June," 132
Hudson, Henry, explorations of,
9 71
Hun aircraft attack on mer-
chant ship, 6
India, foundation of British
Empire in, 9
Indian Marine, the, operations
on the Tigris, 87
Irish Sea, shallowness of, 212
Island Race, the, story of, 22
Jellicoe, Admiral Sir John
(Viscount Jellicoe of
Scapa), a tribute to, 132
and the submarine menace,
133
as First Sea Lord, 113 (note)
despatches on Jutland bat-
tle, 123 et seq.
improves British mines, 214,
215
" Mock Turtle
"
inspects
squadron, 157
on Sir D. Beatty's work at
Jutland, 133
praises the trawlers, 240, 242
tribute to his officers and
men, 59, 129
unconquerable optimism of,
58
Jiddah, surrender of, 89
Justicia, astonishing marksman-
ship of her gunners, 204
Jutland Bank, battle of, a mis-
leading British commu-
nique, 56
Germany's smashing defeat
at, 120
heroism of the wounded, 129
the Kaiser's proclamation
on, 127
work of destroyers at, 124,
125
Kattegat, the, action in, 107
Kent avenges loss of Monmouth,
61
Keyes, Vice-Admiral, 167
Kildare, loss of, 201
Kinneir, Douglas, of Ortega, 10
Kipling, Rudyard, cited, 46
"
his Message to the Nation,"
Kitchener, Lord, and the possi-
bility of invasion, 174
Konigsberg, marooning of, 90
"
Kultur," German, instances
of, 48, 54, 201 ct seq.
Lake Tanganyika, motor-
launches capture enemy
gunboat on, 90
 Index 277
Lectures as a means of En- Midshipmen, a tribute to their
lightenment in war facts, work in Dardanelles
252 et seq. campaign, 92
"
Leipzig, her peaceful voyage" Military strategy, the root of,
and her non-return, 216 173
Leyland, John, on Vice-Admiral Mine-laying by destroyers, 139
Saunders, 77 German activity in, 232
"
Libel of English Policv," the, Minelayers, craft engaged as, 215
24 (note) Mine-sweepers, 230 et seq.
Light craft and single ship Mine-sweeping extraordinary, 57
actions, 135 et seq. Mines, German, devilish ingenu-
" Line ahead "
defined, 18 (note) ity of, 230 et seq.
Lion, Admiral Beatty's address Mocenigo, Pietro, on merchant
to First Battle Cruiser seamen, 9
Squadron on, 270
"
Mock Turtle " squadron of
Llandovery Castle torpedoed and battleships, the, 155
sunk, 31 Moeive fights and sinks Clan
London, air-raids on, 97 Mactavish, 151-2
Loxley, Captain, goes down with Monmouth, "
loss of, 61
his ship, 65 Mons, the Old Contempti-
"
Lusilania, sinking of, 208 bles at, 161
Motor-lorry sinks a submarine,
135, 221
MacCabe, Lieut. John F., 17 Miiller, Captain von, of Emden,
Madden, Admiral, a request to 151
author by, 257 Munday, Fleet-Surgeon R. C,
Madeira, Germany and, 177 129
Mahan, Admiral A. T., on Brit- Mystery ship, an old-time, 223
ish sea supremacy, 73-4 I

Mystery ships (Q-boats), 221 et

Mails, and how they reached the seq.
troops, 169
Maris ton, and a U-boat com-
mander, 209 Napier, Sir Charles, on the
Mary Rose, a gallant fight by, 62 Germans, 206
Masefield, John, cited, 13 Napoleon, his fear of amphibious
Maude, General, on co-operation attacks, 76, 86
in war, 87 Nasmith, Lieut. -Commander M.
" owner" E
May, Sir Arthur, 129 E., of 11,
Mercantile Marine. (Vide Mer- 145
chant Service) Naval Medical Service, the,
Merchant Service, the, 4 et seq. splendid work of, 129
a Venetian Ambassador's warfare, the future of, 261
tribute to, 8 Navy, British, a feat of organisa-
convoyed by battleships, 206 tion and transport by,
ensigns of, 15 162
shipping requisitioned by and " Royal " Navy, 4 (note)
Government, 191, 192 convoy of troops by, 159
(notes) co-operation in, 76 ct seq.
supplied with anti-aircraft its part in the Great War, '_',

guns, 202 69
Mesopotamian campaign, the national ignorance regard-
Navy and, 87 ing, 2-19 et seq.
278 Index
Navy, British, the Four Estates Ostend, enemy base at, 176
of, 22, 36, 242 Overseas bases, importance of,
what it is, 3 177
Navy, Royal, 4 (note) colonies and how protected,
and the shell shortage, 252 174
co-operates with U.S. Navy,
165
democratic nature of, 36, 37 Pacific Ocean, mileage of, 183
first function of, 94 Parslow, Captain, heroism and
its admiration for the
"
Old death of, 199
Contemptibles," 59 Pascoe, John, a fight with
personnel of, 14 Algerine pirates, 5
present-day comradeship in, Peck, Commander, of Swift, 140
50, 51 Pepys on the victualling of
question of pay and allow- sailors, 138
ances, 72, 73 Phoenix, an old-time Mystery
the original, 12 ship, 223
the " "
silent Service, 257 Poop, definition of, 7 (note)
tradition of, 41 et seq. Port beam, meaning of, 7 (note)
Nelson, a typical example of Porter, Sir James, 129
his humanity, 49 Punch, a cartoon on Jutland
death of, 65 battle in, 128
his Trafalgar Memorandum,
115
" "
tradition, the, 94 et seq. Q boats. ( Vide Mystery
waiting policy 142 of, ships)
Nelson, and the death of her V.C. Quebec, capture of, 77
commander, 65
Neutral ships and contraband
of war, 183 Ralegh, Sir Walter, colonises
shipping sunk by Germans, Virginia, 8
197 Ramsgate, a mine explodes off
New Zealand, Lord Kitchener's coast of, 231
Memorandum to Gov- Pappahannock, loss of, 201
ernment of, 174 Red Sea, the, blockade of Ara-
Newfoundland Fishing Fleet, bian coast 88 of,
the, 235-6 Revenge, tradition 62 of,
Nore, the, mutiny at, 13 Rodman, Admiral, Great Brit-
North Sea battle, an incident in, ain's debt of gratitude
60 to, 165
*'
North Sea, the, dummy battle- Rodney, Admiral, and break-
ships in, 155 ing of enemy's line of
minefield in, 215 battle," 143 (note)
North Wales, loss of, 201 Rosebery, Lord, on military
Norwegian ships sunk by enemy, command, 37
197 Roumanian opinion of British
Niirnberg chased by Kent, 60 Fleet, 56
Royal Navy. (V. Navy, Royal)
Rozhdestvensky.Admiral, a cost-
Offence, naval policy of, 141 ly error by, 177
Ortega sails an uncharted chan- Rupert, Prince, as soldier and
nel 11 sailor, 29
 Index 279
Russia, a trade route created Strikes, industrial, an example
with, 9 of need of Enlighten-
Germany's malign influence ment, 266
and, 221 Submarine attack, methods of,
Russo-Japanese War, the, 97, 162
177 fought by trawlers, 18 et
combined operations in, 78 seq.
Rutland, Flight-Lieutenant, 124 sinks Dutch fishing-smack,
197
Submarine service, British, 144
Sailors, and the food question, Submarines, avengers of, 210 el
138 seq.
Saunders, Vice-Admiral, co-op- British losses in Great War,
erates with Gen. Wolfe, 149
77 displacement of, 25
Scapa Flow, experiences of com- increasing activity of, 197
mander of surrendered life in, 147
destroyer at, 128 ocean-going, 211
undefended in first year of surrendered bv Germany, 98,
Great War, 117, 251 149
Scarborough, bombardment of, Sweden, shipping lost by enemy
97 action, 197
Scott, Admiral Sir Percy, an un- Swift, a fight with enemy de-
fulfilled forecast of, 198 stroyers, 140, 142
Scouts, Sea Service branch of, Sydney chases and destroys
243 Emden, 151
Seafaring folk of coast line, the,
15 et seq., 36
Sea-warfare, limitations of, 96 Tiger, hurried departure of, 1
Secret Services, British and Tigris, the, amphibious opera-
German, 112 tions on, 87
Sims, Admiral, Great Britain's Torpedo boat destroyers, Rear-
debt of gratitude to, 165 Admiral Tyrwhitt's ad-
tribute to British Grand vocacy of, 136
Fleet by, 73 splendid work of, 136
Sister Services, the, 76 et seq. (Vide also Destroyers)
Sloop, definition of, 224 (note) Torpedoes, range and speed of,

Sluys,
battle of, 97 163, 211
Smith, John, of Vigilant, 193 Trade routes, importance of
Smith-Dorrien, Sir Horace, 133 protecting, 174
Spanish-American War, com- Trafalgar, battle of, Admiral
bined operations78 in, Lord Collingwood's des-
Spanish Armada, the, and the patch on, 269
Merchant Service, 7 numbers of ships engaged
insignificance of English in, 151
Fleet in, 150 Trawlers, Admiral .Jellicoe's tri-
Startin, Admiral Sir James, an bute to, 240, 2112
heroic deed by, 53 as mine-sweepers, 232 et seq.
awarded Albert Medal, 54 attacked by submarine, 18
re-enters the Service, 52 Trcwin, Asst. -Paymaster, 121
Slratliearn escapes from the Troops, transport and convoy
enemy, 211 of, by British Navy, 159
280 Index
Tyndareus, heroism of troops Ward, Colonel John, heroism of
on, 234 his Labour Battalion,
Tyrvvhitt, Rear-Admiral R. Y., 234
and his Harwich Force, Warfare, land and sea main :

98 el seq. difference between, 96

and torpedo boat destroyers, Watt, Joseph, a plucky fight
136 with an Austrian cruis-
er, 154
awarded the Victoria Cross,
Undaunted's success with enemy 155
destroyers, 119 Wei-hai-Wei, Japanese attack
United States, foundation of, 8
on, 78
Navy of, co-operates with Welch, Thomas, of Vigilant,
Royal Navy, 165 193
Whitbourne, Richard, Commo-
Veer, Mr. Van der, as strike- dore of Queen Eliza-
breaker, 267 beth's Fishing Fleet, 235
Vengeur, a fight with Bruns- Wilson, Havelock, and boycott
wick, 132 of Germans, 46
Vigilant, and her three heroes, Wolfe, General, co-operates with
193 Vice-Admiral Saunders,
Virginia, colonisation of, 8 77
Women, heroism and self-sacri-
fice of, 30 el seq.
Wagenfuhr, U-boat command-
er, dastardly conduct of,
207 Zeebrugge, enemy base at, 176
Wandle sinks a German sub- Zeppelins v.
Destroyers and a:

" marine, 8 tale of a dog, 47

War Aims Committee," the, Zigzagging, and why adopted,
259 200

Printed by Cassell & Company, Limited, La Belle Sauvace, London, E.C .4

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